Historia Merlinus
by FireAngel312
Summary: Merlin has never known his father for he had died before he was even born. All he can do is hide his magic powers from those who would kill him because of it. Now his mother has sent him to Camelot where he is to work with the King's Court physician, but he will soon discover a lot more about his destiny as well as those would destroy Camelot. (AU of sorts, learn more inside)
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: Okay, so story is somewhat similar to the series only not really, which you wil find out in this first chapter/Prologue. I will not reveal much before this first chapter as I want readers to sort of see and get an idea of the angle I work at. What I will say is that I will use a lot of things from the show (which I'll have to re/finish watching)and a lot of things from the original Merlin legend. I'd also like you to know that just because the characters are listed on the story, does not mean that I will give them their individual chapters. I just put them there to give my story a wider range of viewers. (Though, all characters that are listed, and more, will appear in the story and play a role, like in the series.)****And I just keep rambling, so I'll let you read now.**  


Late in the hour it was on the rainy and fateful night. He sat at his desk with a single candle for him to write by, scribbling down a letter to a friend. He didn't have much more time, he hoped that Geoffrey would come around soon. He dipped his quill into an inkwell as he let the previous line dry. He continued writing this urgent letter.

…_. and I implore you to continue your service as Uther's physician. I have seen what his son is meant to be and that was why I have stood beside him all these years, otherwise I would have left his side after his brother's, Aurelius, death. This is not how I imagined my goodbyes to be expressed, but if I hadn't suggested Nimueh to Uther, Arthur Pendragon would never have been born. In fact, as I sit here now, I am sure Ygraine's strength is waning from being in labor. I have written a similar letter to Hunith, so do not worry yourself on that. Whatever happens from now on, Gaius, look after the Prince, he is our savior now._

_Your most sincere friend, _

_M.B.E._

He set his quill aside and folded the piece of paper. He then sifted through the items upon his desk looking for the seal stamp. His hand fumbled upon it and he picked the candle up from where it sat on the desk. He poured the scarlet melted wax onto the folded letter and quickly stamped the still hot wax with his personal seal. A dragon.

He set it on top of another letter he had written only minutes before he had written this one. Standing up, he quickly moved to a pack set on top of a regal looking bed. He grabbed a few books from where he had placed them on the bed and stored them in the pack. Then he grabbed a ring, which adorned a rather too big and gaudy sky blue gemstone, and slipped it on his finger. One would almost suspect that wearing such a ring with an uncomfortable sized stone would be rather taxing, but he was used to it.

He looked out the rain pattered window. He suddenly became aware of his reflection. His image was of a thirty year old man with brown hair and blue eyes. His broad face formed a solemn expression. This realization made him worry of Geoffrey he had sent someone to fetch him nearly a half-hour ago, if he didn't arrive soon he would have to write a third letter, and didn't know if he was emotionally ready to do that. A rushed knocking at the door brought him out of his stupor. He crossed the room and opened the door.

Geoffrey of Monmouth stepped into the room. Geoffrey was nearly fifteen years his senior, but Geoffrey had always acted as if his friend was the older one. "You requested my presence?"

"Yes, old friend," the man told the librarian. He crossed the room and picked the letters up off the table, he handed them to the other man. "I have very little time before I must go. I need you to deliver this to the names addressed on them."

The older man looked skeptically at the other. "Go? Where are you going? And why?"

"I've seen what is to come to pass to night and the outcomes will change Uther's look on magic," the younger man explained quickly.

"Do you mean to say that the Prince, Arthur, will… die?" Geoffrey asked astonished.

"No." This gave Geoffrey a moment of relief, until the other man said: "Ygraine will."

"What? Are you sure?"

"I've seen it in the flames, Geoffrey."

"What of Gaius? Have you told him?"

"I confined my vision to him and he knows now to always expect the truth of my visions; so, indeed, I have told him. What little I have not told him is in one of those letters I have given you to deliver."

"And Hunith?" Geoffrey asked quietly. The man didn't answer right away, his mind wrestled with itself on the matter so many times already.

"She knows little, though, I have also written a letter explaining as much as I possibly can to her. That is the second letter you hold." Silence fell upon the two of them as the younger man continued his packing. However, Geoffrey could not keep quiet for long.

"But what of your vision from all those years ago? You said that you would—"

"I said the one named Merlin would have a destiny beside the future King of Albion, Arthur Pendragon. My name is indeed Merlin, in the old tongue, Myrddin, but Balinor my name shall always be. Myrddin Balinor Emrys," Balinor spoke, once more looking out the water covered window.

"Then who is the true Merlin you spoke of so many years ago?" The answer did not come for many moments.

"My son."

"Your son?"

"Hunith does not know yet, but I have explained it in my letter to her. The boy shall grow and become a close friend to Arthur. I have seen it and a great many other things, he will be the one true sorcerer to bear the name of Merlin," Balinor said, he only half realized what he had said, his mind was elsewhere; in the visions that he had only days before, visions of his son.

"What of you, where shall you go?" Geoffrey asked, concerned for his friend.

"I must go to Kilgharrah and warn him; though, doubtless he already knows. Then I will return to the cave a retrieve what is important. I will go into hiding like the rest of those who carry magic. I promise I shall return one day friend," Balinor gently told his friend, laying a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. However, he soon withdrew it. "Go, I must finish packing before Arthur is born. Uther will go into action before dawns light reaches the horizon and I plan to be well away from Camelot before that happens."

Geoffrey stepped towards the door, but turned to his friend once more before leaving, "I hope we will see each other once more before one of us leaves tlhis world."

"So do I," Balinor answered with a small smile. Geoffrey left him standing alone in the dimly lit bedroom. His expression returned to the solemn one that he had worn before. "Though, I fear that the future is already set into stone."

He lingered in the room he had occupied for the last several months. It was strewn with books of all types; many of them would soon burn in Uther's rampage. The bed had been fixed and his night gown had been set out by a servant Uther had insisted that he use. He would miss the many conversations he had in this room, especially those that he had shared with the former king, Uther's brother, Aurelius Ambrosius Pendragon.

It had been years since Aurelius's death and he still remembered the moment vividly. Little could he have done to stop that moment, he had seen it in the flames weeks before the event. He was wounded in battle from the oncoming horde of Saxons, his brother coming to his rescue moments later. However, it wasn't the immediate wound that had killed him. The poison formed from the infected wound had worked at his strength for weeks and little had he been able to do to save the king.

But if he could have saved him; would he have saved him? He had, after all, seen the event in a vision. It had been destiny that had brought the fall of Aurelius Pendragon. That what his, Balinor, visions were; the truth of fate. Or had he simply told himself that in order to drop the burden of Aurelius's, his dearest friend, death of his shoulders? Had he simply allowed himself to believe this to avoid blaming himself of his friend's death? He pushed the thoughts away. It was not time to pry at the past, when the future was about to be the present. Balinor shouldered his pack and left the room without a backward glance.

The corridors of Camelot's castle were strangely empty, but these allowed him to be quicker on his departure. He only passed a few servants leaving the kitchen as he passed. Upon seeing him, they bowed and curtsied, the advisor and warlock of the king was to be respected as much as the king.

He didn't stop; though, he sorely wished to stop and tell them that they needed not show him such respect. They wouldn't if they surely knew that tonight had come about by many years of planning. The only thing Balinor had not planned on was Ygraine's looming death and Uther's coming rampage. He quickly turned an upcoming corner and left the servants far behind.

He left the castle and went to the stables where a horse waited, already saddled and ready to mount. All he had needed to do for this to happen had been to bribe the stable boy with a few pieces of silver. After receiving the coins, the young boy had saddled, very discreetly, Balinor's personal horse, Gildas. Giving the grey horse a calming pat on the noise, he mounted the stead and cracked the reigns. This caused the horse to spur forward at a full gallop. Balinor and Gildas shot out into the pouring rain. As he rode away into the gloomy night, a deep and masculine scream of anguish ripped through the night, as if someone had just lost someone dear to them.

It would be several hours before he reached the cave. He had lied to Geoffrey, who suspected him to be heading to council with the Great Dragon, when he really intended to go straight for his hidden cave. For the Great Dragon already knew what would come about and knew what he must do to insure that Balinor's son knew everything he needed to be help to Arthur. No, a cave was his true destination. The cave, many people called it Bryn Myrddin, was the only place in the world where he truly felt safe, as many people only speculated its existence and no one knew of its location. No one knew, save one. That was his destination, for fate awaited him there, that very night.

He cleared his mind of all thoughts, allowing his mind to enjoy the precious moments of his life. His many years studying to be the warlock he had become. His time spent with his father, whether it was to be truly with him or to train as a dragonlord. Most importantly, Hunith, the only woman he had truly loved in his life. No one knew that she had been courted by the warlock of Uther's court; though, he had intended to reveal their love soon to her father. However, the current situation he had not foreseen and he knew for him to go on as planned would put not only Hunith at risk, but also their coming child. His son.

How Balinor wished to be present when his son came into the world, but that possibility came crashing down when that pain filled scream had ripped through the night. He only wished to be able to help his son understand his powers when they started to show, but again, that would not come about. Out of all of the things he had seen in all the years he had the power of Sight, not once had he ever seen a vision of a child for himself. Not until a few days past, but by then it was too late to change the future.

Dawn's light began to creep up over the horizon; Uther would have already started eradicating all those who possessed some form of magic. Everyone except, hopefully, Gaius. He was a close friend, closer to him than Geoffrey, but not as close as Aurelius. He held the position of Uther's court physician. He was only a few years older than Balinor and a lot better versed in the ways of healing then Balinor. But the sole reason that Balinor had become friends with Gaius had been Hunith, his sister. Though, that did not mean that had changed over the years, Balinor had come to respect Gaius as an equal, if not higher. After all, he had to put up with Uther during all those months that Balinor had disappeared. And now he would have to ensure Uther believed that he no longer practiced the ways of the Old Religion in order to protect the Prince, Arthur.

The rain had given out during the early hours, which he could only be thankful for. He wasn't far from the hidden cave. He dismounted Gildas upon seeing a stream, which acted as a marker so he could find the entrance to his home. He unsaddled the horse and took of the bridles; he patted the horses noise once more. He whined, as if it knew what was coming. Balinor smiled sadly.

"It must be done, I have no other choice," he told it in a soothing voice. The horse snorted its disapproval. Balinor laughed. "What would you know of the ways of men? Though, I suppose I should treat you once more."

Setting down his pack, Balinor reached into the leather bag and pulled out a large, red apple. Gildas became still and his nostrils flared as if his only wish was to have the apple. Balinor quickly and precisely cut it into small pieces, for the horse's convenience. He slowly fed the slices of the apple to the horse, which took each piece greedily and waited for the next. When the apple was gone Balinor returned the knife, a gift from Aurelius long ago, to its sheath and he placed it into the pack.

"Now, you must leave. Your service for me ends here," Balinor said using only a bit of magic to send the horse trotting off in the opposite direction of his destination. He turned his body in the direction that the stream ran and followed it. As he tramped through the brush growing near the water's edge, Balinor cleared his mind of everything, now only allowing what was about to come to pass fill his mind. He did not truly dread his fate, but he wished he had had more times to settle a few unsettled things.

As he rounded the corner the stream entered a cave entrance, or to him it did. To anyone else, the entrance would have been disguised as a cliff face and there would have been a small trickle of water running down the front of it, as he had wished when he cast a spell to hide the cave. He did not hesitate to enter the cave, despite the warning flag that went up in his mind. It needed to be this way; it had to happen like how he had seen it in his vision by the flames.

For more than a few moments he walked in complete darkness, not even the large jewel on his finger gleamed. However, as his foot entered a relatively large sized chamber a fire started in the magically formed fire place and his harp, which sat on a stool in the far corner, began to play itself. This had been the way he had always been greeted on his arrival in his home. But it was far different that day, for someone else was there to greet him.

"Balinor, it's wonderful to see you," a voice, clearly feminine, echoed through the chamber. Balinor's eyes roamed the chamber until his eyes settled on the one he had known would be waiting for him.

"Nimueh," he said stiffly to the witch. "You must have used powerful magic to get here before I. Especially since you were in attendance with the king and queen when I left."

A light laugh escaped from the witch as she stepped from the shadows from which she was hiding. She remained to be as beautiful and young as she had been when he had met her many years before. How foolish of him to have listened to her back then. She had brown hair, a shade just a bit lighter than his own, which fell around her face. Her bluish-gray eyes watched him with a piercing glare; though, not a glare of anger, more like a glare a predator gives its prey. She stepped closer to him.

"Yes, well, we had some unfinished business together and sadly, my audience ended with the king and queen abruptly, only mere minutes after you left," she said warmly and gently, almost as if nothing had happened.

"Was it as I foretold? Is the queen…" he could not bring himself to finish the sentence. Nimueh, unfortunately, did it for him.

"Dead? Of course." Balinor hung his head in grief. He and Ygraine had never been close, but he had been around her a lot since her and Uther's marriage and he had come to love her as Camelot's queen. "But you needed not blame yourself, I did warn Uther that such an act would come with a price. He was the one who ignored my warning, not you. Besides, wasn't this your plan? For Ygraine to bear a child who would become an even greater king than Aurelius?"

"Yes, but I never wished for Ygraine to pay the price? I had hoped the price could have been paid in other ways…" Balinor trailed off. Nimueh smiled; a seductive, mocking smile.

"You and I know that very little goes by how we wish," she said and started to circle him, her hands trailing a path on him as she moved. "For example, you wanted to marry the sister of Uther's court physician. What I wanted… well, I wanted you."

"Only because of my powers, not because you truly loved me," Balinor snapped. Nimueh came to stop in front of him, her body only inches away from touching his own.

"Maybe, but that might have progressed into true feelings if you hadn't gone away with Aurelius," Nimueh said softly. Balinor heard the sadness and hurt in her voice, but he would not truly believe that she had such feelings about those years. "But it is in the past, which does little to change the present."

"Nimueh, if that truly had been my destiny, I wouldn't have left. But I knew, as you did, as you told me, that my destiny outweighed the plans of king and queens. It took nearly fifteen years for this day to come as I had foreseen," Balinor said his voice bouncing off the cavern walls. "Now it has come and it still came to ends which I could not have foreseen before fate allowed me to see it. Besides, I never truly loved you. Your powers drew me in, not your outward kindness that you showed me. I was young and wanted to learn. No, I love Hunith more than I ever loved you."

Nimueh spun around so fast that Balinor raised his arm to fend off any attack that she might have thrown at him.

"How dare you speak her name! That commoner, she knows nothing of what you and I both know. I still cannot believe you, Balinor, warlock of Uther's court, fell for simple woman like her. What has she ever given you that I had not?"

"A son," Balinor said quietly. Nimueh's expression of anger disappeared and was replaced by astonishment.

"A s… son?" Nimueh asked in her confusion.

"Yes, an unborn son." Despite his current and upcoming situation, Balinor smiled at the thought of his child. Nimueh seemed to regain herself in those brief moments of thought.

"A son, how interesting," Nimueh said, turning away so her face was hidden in the dark.

"If you dare try to harm him, or Hunith, I'll—"

"What? You'll what?" Nimueh turned back with an sneer on her face. "You gave up your chance to change anymore future events when you came to your precious cave." She fell silent as did Balinor.

She, of course, was right, Balinor reluctantly admitted to himself. He had given up all chance to stop her from doing any more harm when he had entered the cave. She could do anything she wanted to with him and all he could do was stand and take it because he had accepted his fate. Before Balinor could form a sentence, Nimueh spoke once again.

"However, you have mine word, like the ones I gave to Uther when I warned him of the price he would pay for my help, I shall not harm your child. At least, not until I grow bored of watching him."

"Why?" Balinor found himself asking.

"Because he is your child. I want to see how your son's powers form, maybe even test him a bit," Nimueh smirked evilly; her mood had become that of what they had been when they had first started their conversation.

"So you can decide if you can seduce him like you did me, and possibly gain his trust like you never gained mine," Balinor said bitterly as he watched her intently.

"We shall see what is to become of your son's fate, but that is not the matter at hand. We're here, more presently, because of your fate," Nimueh said her voice had become quiet once more. However, her voice was not quiet out of sadness, now it was deadly.

"I have accepted it, otherwise I would not be here," Balinor stated.

"Then I guess there is nothing more for us to talk about," Nimueh continued with her quiet voice.

"I guess not," Balinor replied. Nimueh whipped around faster than Balinor could have expected. He stumbled back with a raised arm as a spell fell upon him. He could tell the spell was already starting to affect him when he heard Nimueh say: "By the way you had moved, maybe you weren't as accepting of your fate as you had thought." Which was followed with a light laugh.

Balinor looked down to see that the clothes he wore had started to morph into tree bark. He watched, at first, without panic as the bark traveled across his body. But as his body began to change, painlessly, he did start to panic. Maybe Nimueh had been right, maybe he hadn't been ready for this. He could feel extra limbs to grow from his neck and the sides of his body. His last thoughts were that of the letter he had written to Hunith.

_Dear beloved Hunith,_

_There are so many things to explain, but I have very little time to tell them. I know as you sit and read this, your mind begins to think for the worse. I will not deny that by the time you receive this I will be dead, for I have seen it in the flames and the dragons could only tell me that the vision was the truth. I had never planned for this to happen, I wanted to live and have a family with you. Now I can only assure you of what will come in the future with the words of this letter._

_The night that I wrote this was the night Ygraine was due to give birth to her child, and gave birth she did. However, due to some unforeseen complications, the queen died. You will have likely have received the news before this letter reaches you. But there are things that I must warn. Due to the Queen's death, Uther will seek payment, payment by the blood of those who have magic retained in them. I have not fallen to that fate. My fate was for a much different reason. However, the fate of our child will be affected by Uther's bloodlust. Yes, Hunith, you are with child._

_How long have I known? When I wrote this, only a few days before Prince Arthur's birth. That is why I urge you to return to Maridunum, your hometown. It would give me great relief to know that you and my son are out of harm's way. Our son, which I respectively ask, as my last wish, to be named Myrddin Emrys, has a destiny not even I am sure of. Difficulties await him and maybe you as well, but I know you will get by them without me. I also wish for him to return to Camelot when he comes of age to work with your brother at Uther's court. It is a lot to ask, especially when I've just told you that Uther will kill anyone associated with the Old Religion, but as long as you teach the boy and watch him until he comes of age, I'm sure he'll be fine._

_It is hard to express goodbyes in a letter rather than words from one's mouth and I wish I could do more, but alas, I cannot. I just want to tell you how much I love you and that one day, I hope we may meet again._

_Yr. Obnt. Srv._

_Balinor_

They were the last words that he would ever share with her and she would never be able to send a reply and expect one in return. His son would grow up without a father and probably face ridicule because of it. Oh, how he wished he could change the past! But alas, that was beyond his capability. He was now unrecognizable as a human, but he now looked like an ancient oak tree. A blue jewel could be seen sticking out of the bark on one of the limbs. As the last of his mind began to fade there was only one word in his mind.

_Hunith._

Hundreds of miles from the cave, a young woman sat in front of a fire place, dreaming of the arrival of her only love. Her head perked up. It was strange; she could have sworn she had heard her name being called. As she sat thinking about it a sudden dread fell upon her and Hunith knew, even before Geoffrey had left Camelot to deliver the letter, that her love, Balinor, was dead.

**Author's Note: When I originally started typing this, I thought it would be just little over 2,000 words. Boy was I surprised when it came out to be over 4,000. I warn, with most every story that I put up, that I usually take forever to post new chapters. Mostly because I take forever deciding how to gauge events in plot lines, plus sometimes I'm not exactly sure what will happen so I sort of sit for hours thinking of how I do want it to go. Plus, I have so many other stories that I have started, but not finished due to the facts that i mentioned above. I hope this won't discourage you from continuing reading my stories however. Another thing I would like to mention, usually with chapters I like to keep my words set at a certain amount, usually around 5,000. But with this one I think I'll just put down whatever fits best in a chapter and leave it at that. That does not, however, mean that I won't go back and fix things or add things. Rate and Comment if you wish, I'm accustomed to loneliness.**

**Myrddin(Pronunciation: Marthen) Emrys = Merlinus Ambrosius**

**Historia Merlinus: The History of Merlin**

**_Yr. Obnt. Srv. = Your Obedient Servant (Sign of great affection)_**

**_Maridunum: Present day Carmarthen, UK_**


	2. Prince Arthur

**Author's Note: I need to explain a few things about the first chapter/Prologue. Okay, as you read, in my version, Balinor isn't just a simple dragonlord, he is also a warlock. He is also named Myrddin Emrys because there is a theory that there were actually two Merlins. One helped defeat Vortigern and advised both Aurelius and Uther Pendragon, the second one is the one that advised King Arthur. Balinor is the first and the Merlin we've all come to love is the second, in my version at least. I also brought some original Merlin legend with Nimueh as, in legend, Merlin was either trapped in a cave or oak tree, I just had him turned into a tree in his cave so there weren't any loose ends, by either, the Lady of the Lake (Vivine), or Nimueh.**

**Now to explain little bit about this next chapter. It's pretty much consists of the first half of the first Merlin episode from season one from Merlin's point of view. I needed him to still become Arthur's manservant and I didn't want to create a whole new conflict to do that. However, the two fight scenes between them I mushed up all into one scene to save time. I will not make it a habit to use episodes for every chapter, like I said before, I just needed it to make Merlin Arthur's manservant. However, there are a few things I have changed in this. First off, I added in a character I'm surprised they didn't because, in legend, he recorded most of Merlin's escapades. Also, Merlin will meet some of the characters a different way then he did in the show.**

**I respectfully used lines from ****_Dragon's Call. _****Again I will not make it a habit to use episodes for chapters, though I will use the characters and some of them will likely have the same goals.**

The sun rose high in the sky over the course of the day. It became hot and sticky and all he wanted to do was to sit down and rest for a bit. However, it had been a long and exhausting journey; Merlin knew that Camelot was just a few more miles of walking away. Instead of sitting down and resting like he wished, he grabbed his waterskin and took a long draught from it. He corked the top when he finished.

Merlin, a young man of at least nineteen years of age, stood to the side of a hillside path in the kingdom of Camelot. He was tall and scrawny; one would almost suspect that he starved himself, which was reinforced by his prominent cheek bones. His ears stuck out from his short brown hair that looked as if it was in needed of a proper haircut. He wore simple trousers and blue wool shirt. Over the top he wore a tan jacket and around his neck hung a red handkerchief. His blue eyes glinted in the afternoon sun. At the moment his face was supporting an irritated look, but it wasn't due to the heat.

"Hurry up Blaise!" he called behind him. A young man, the same age as him, came running up the hill huffing heavily.

"Sorry Merlin, I thought I spotted some mushrooms," the boy said. He was similarly built to Merlin, only that he had nothing on Merlin for height. His black hair fell around his face, a lot broader then Merlin's, and in his stormy, gray eyes, but he simply brushed it behind his ears with a sweep of his hand. He wore simple trousers as well and a black cotton shirt. He wore a pack, similar to the one on Merlin's back, packed full with the books he had managed to collect over the years. Blaise was fascinated with books.

"Not this again," Merlin moaned as he began to walk again. "Those mushrooms never gave you the power to see fairies. They caused you to hallucinate."

"So you claim," Blaise said stubbornly. "But the only magic you know is what you can do!"

"Yeah, can we _not _bring that up," Merlin told him, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "My mother warned me not to say anything and more importantly, _do_ anything when we reached Camelot."

"Please, we know how well that will go," Blaise said with amusement. "You'll see something about to happen and have to help."

"I'll just have to stop myself," Merlin said squinting at the far off horizon. "And that means you'll have to stop your fanciful ideas of being my herald, or whatever you call it."

"Your biographer; and why should I? You're destined for greatness," Blaise proclaimed loudly. "The greatest sorcerer to ever live!"

"Shut up!" Merlin hissed well looking around to make sure they were alone. "You know Uther's law."

"Oh, poo him, I hope whatever caused him to hate magic so much is still hurting him," Blaise muttered bitterly.

"You won't be thinking that when you have your head on the chopping block," Merlin commented. Blaise continued to mutter about Uther as they walked down the hillside path.

Merlin and Blaise came from the small town of Ealdor in the kingdom of Essetir, which lay near Camelot's border. Hunith, Merlin's mother, had decided it was time for Merlin to make his way in the world and found him a job with Camelot's court physician, Gaius. Blaise had tagged along because he was determined that Merlin was bound for greatness. Plus he had caused too much trouble for his own mother, who had managed to get him a job working with the librarian at Camelot's citadel. Since they were bound for the same place, they had decided to walk together. They were also close friends.

Many years before, when Merlin was no more than twelve, he had witnessed a few kids throwing stones at what appeared to be a pile. At the time, many of the children of Ealdor feared him because of his magic. So in an attempt to get on their good side, he asked if he could join in. They were hesitant at first, but allowed him to join in. It wasn't until after Merlin had thrown a few small stones at the pile of rags that it wasn't a pile of rags. It was a young boy.

Merlin told the others to stop, but they wouldn't listen. It was one of those few times where Merlin had gotten angry enough where he had no control over his magic. The stones that were still flying towards the young boy stopped in mid-air and reversed their course to the original owner. The other kids ran away screaming in fear well Merlin went to the boy to see if he was alright. From that day on, the young boy, Blaise, had become Merlin's friend. The event did little to reassure the others that he was not to be feared, but he did not care.

The magic he possessed was one of the many mysteries about Merlin. He had had it ever since he could remember and sometimes he would use it involuntarily. His mother always seemed to worry about him because of it; though, he had never seen a reason for her to worry. However, now that he was traveling to a kingdom where anyone related to magic would be executed; he saw the reason for which she worried.

Merlin and Blaise continued their journey to Camelot's citadel, which the spotted from an enclave of trees upon a high hill. Merlin had to admit that it was impressive with all its jetting towers, with their high spires. They reached the buildings that surrounded the outside wall of the citadel by the time the sun had made its way down the sky. Both boys were amazed by the things they saw, having never been out of small, boring Ealdor. However, they had appointments to keep and soon made their way to the citadel courtyard. To their surprise, a large crowd was assembled there, all swarmed around a high platform.

As they both pushed their way closer to the platform, they heard the role of drums. Merlin looked up to see none other than King Uther Pendragon himself standing on a castle balcony. He looked the part of king, standing regal with golden crown placed finely on his grey hair covered hair. His predator like gaze scrutinized the assembled crowd as a man, followed by several burly guards adorned with red tunics and silver chainmail, was pushed up onto the platform. The King spoke.

"Let this serve as a lesson to all. This man, Thomas James Collins, is adjudged guilty of conspiring to use enchantments and magic and pursuant to the laws of Camelot," the King spoke loudly as he gestured to the man standing before him. "I, Uther Pendragon, have decreed that such practices are banned on penalty of death. I pride myself as a fair and just king, but for the crime of sorcery there is but one sentence I can pass." The king signaled with his hand.

Merlin watched as a burly man dressed in black ascended the wooden steps of the platform, he carried a large axe. Merlin watched in horror, never had he seen an execution, but now he was about to witness one. He glanced round at the crowd to see them all watching, wearing similar looks of horror. He looked to his friend; Blaise looked grim as he glanced at Merlin. The executioner hefted his axe and brought it up high. The curved blade seemed to suspend in the air for a moment before it arched downward. Merlin turned his head before he could witness it bite into the man's neck. After a few moments of looking away, his gaze slowly came back to the King.

"When I came to this land, this kingdom was mired in chaos but, with the people's help, magic was driven from the realm," The King said, spreading his arms wide. "So I declare a festival to celebrate twenty years since the Great Dragon was captured and Camelot freed from the evil of sorcery. Let the celebrations begin!" Then he turned away, but he took only a couple of steps before a woman let out a heart wrenching scream.

Merlin's head turned on his neck to see the woman who had screamed and was slightly terrified at her appearance. Her face was wrinkled and speckled with liver spots. She hunched over as though her back hurt her immensely. She glared through teary eyes at Uther.

"There is only one evil in this land but it is not magic. It is you!" she jabbed a finger at the King. "With your hatred and your ignorance! You took my son. But I promise you, before these celebrations are over, you will share my tears. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a son for a son!"

"Seize her!" Uther proclaimed to his guards, but they could hardly take a step before the woman clasped a gemstone necklace in her hand, rasped something, and disappeared in a dark flurry. People began to disperse with fear in their eyes, both Merlin and Blaise followed suite.

"Well, what a nice thing to be an audience to the first day here," Blaise commented under his breath. Merlin could only nod; he was still struck speechless by the scene. They kept close and quiet as they strode through the courtyard. Merlin quickly implored a guard for the direction of the court physician's quarters. The guard just pointed his thumb through the passage way he guarded. Both of the young men's eyes wandered as they made their way through the corridors. Merlin stepped into a doorway and saw a sign reading "Court Physician."

"Come on," Merlin told Blaise as he went up a small flight of stairs. Merlin reached the top and found himself in a dark corridor. After walking down and coming to a doorway, Merlin knocked on the slightly open door and called: "Hello."

With Blaise following him, Merlin pushed the door open and stepped into the room. It was littered with glass jars containing liquids and herbs alike. A cauldron sat bubbling on the table in the center of the room and a man stood on a wooden terrace examining a shelf with jars. Merlin walked farther into a room.

"Gaius," Merlin said and cleared his throat. The man started to turn around, but tripped and fell backwards into the wooden railing. The railing broke and the man began to fall causing Merlin to react in instinct. He glared at the falling body of the man, which slowed down to the point just before freezing in mid-air.

"See! What did I tell you?" Blaise exclaimed, referencing to his earlier comment about Merlin not being able to restrain himself from using magic.

"Shut up! Quickly, I need something to soften his fall," Merlin spoke quickly as he watched the man's snail fast fall.

"The bed," Blaise pointed to the corner of the room. Merlin glared at the bed as well, willing it to move in his mind, and move it did. The bed glided across the stone floor and stopped under the falling body. If one had been watching Merlin's eyes, they would have seen them go from their blue color to a blazing gold. His magic broke and the man fell onto the bed, grunting.

"What!? What did you just do?" the man exclaimed, struggling to get up from the bed. He wore a simple brown tunic that allowed his white, shoulder length hair to stand out. The man had to be at least sixty years of age.

"Um?" Merlin didn't know how to answer.

"Tell me!"

"I…I have no idea what happened," Merlin said unconvincingly. Merlin heard Blaise snigger.

The old man, Gaius, looked from Merlin to where he had fallen from, "If anyone had seen that…"

"No, that…that was nothing to do with me…that's…" Merlin tried desperately to find something to say. It was not helping that Blaise looked ready to burst with laughter.

"I know what it was," Gaius said looking at Merlin with a critical eye. "I just want to know where you learned how to do it."

"Nowhere!"

"So how is it you know magic?"

"I don't!"

There was a slight pause, "Where did you study?"

Another pause.

"Answer me!"

"Look, I've never studied magic or….or been taught."

"Are you lying to me boy?" Gaius took a step closer.

"What do you want me to say?" Merlin asked out of desperation.

"The truth," Gaius demanded.

"I was born like this!"

"That's impossible!" he paused to look back at the bed and then returned his gaze back on Merlin. "Who are you?"

It took Merlin a second to realize what he had been asked.

"Oh, um, I have this letter," he said as he pulled his pack of his shoulders and fished a piece a paper from underneath a rolled up blanket. Merlin handed the physician the letter, who took it and looked at it.

"Well, I don't have my glasses," Gaius exclaimed.

"I'm Merlin," the owner of the name told Gaius. Gaius looked at him for a moment, but then the name registered.

"Hunith's boy!"

"Yes," Merlin said, a grin spreading across his face.

"But you're not meant to be here until Wednesday," Gaius said looking puzzled.

"It is Wednesday," Merlin told him, his grin had fallen from his face.

"Oh," Gaius stated. "Right then, you'd better put your pack in there." He pointed to a door in the back of the room. Then he turned to the other person into the room. "And who are you?"

"I'm Blaise, a friend of Merlin's. I'm supposed to be reporting to Geoffrey," Blaise said with a smirk on his face.

"And you know about his…" Gaius didn't finish the sentence, but he gestured to the bed.

"I don't think I'd still be standing here if I hadn't suspected something like that," Blaise replied.

"Yes, well, I'll show you to Geoffrey before I return to my work," Gaius said as he guided Blaise to the door.

"Gaius," Merlin called, the old man turned to look at him. "You won't say anything about, um…" Merlin looked at the bed.

"No," Gaius said. Merlin turned away. "Although, Merlin!" The owner of the name turned back around.

"I should say thank you," Gaius said with a small smile. Merlin couldn't help himself a let a smile spread across his own face before he turned away and entered the back room.

Gaius had obviously fixed it up for him to sleep there. There was a bed placed against the wall lined up with the door. There were a few tables with candles, which Merlin lit; without magic. However, it seemed that the physician had many things he needed for there were boxes stacked up, against the walls. Merlin sighed, this was his new home. After putting his things away Merlin turned to the window and threw it open.

Camelot was lit up by many burning torches lining the streets, which were alive with people. The full moon, bright and white, shone in the night. It reminded Merlin much of the scene he had read in Blaise's books. He took a deep breath of the fresh air. He could get used to living here. He shut the window after a time and went to his bed. Curling up in his blanket, he closed his eyes and waited for sleep to take him, wondering what the next day would bring.

_Merlin_

_Merlin_

Merlin's eyes shot open expecting to see Gaius standing above him, but no one loomed over him. Without getting up from bed, he threw a wary glance around the room, neither was there anyone else in the room with him. He shrugged. _Must have been my imagination_, Merlin thought to himself. He pushed himself off the bed and got dressed; he left the room with one more glance back.

He found Gaius at the stove pouring something into a bowl. Merlin didn't have a clue to what it was, but he hoped it was breakfast. Gaius looked up at him as he approached.

"I got you water," he said, pointing to a bucket of water on the table in the middle of the room. "You didn't wash last night."

"I'm sorry," Merlin said as he approached the table; though, he wasn't quite sure what he was sorry for.

"Help yourself to breakfast," Gaius told him as he set the bowl he was carrying down on the table. Merlin sat down at the table and pulled the bowl closer. It turned out to be regular old porridge. Great, Merlin thought as he scooped some of the bowls contents up with a spoon and let it plop back into the bowl. He was so absorbed with the disappointment of breakfast that he didn't realize Gaius saddle closer to the table.

Suddenly, Merlin realized that the bucket of water was falling to the floor and like the day before, his mind reacted on instinct. He glared at the bucket and it froze in mid-air, Merlin jumped to his feet. He realized too late that Gaius had pushed the bucket over in the attempt to make him react. Gaius gasped, looked at Merlin and then at the frozen bucket before Merlin's magic broke and the bucket and its contents fell to the floor.

"How did you do that?" Gaius asked as he peered at Merlin suspiciously. "Did you incant a spell in your mind?"

Merlin shook his head vigorously, "I don't know any spells."

"Then what did you do?" the physician implored. "There must be something?

"It just happens," Merlin told him as he looked from the bucket to Gaius. As the older man looked at the bucket Merlin decided this would be his best chance to break from the conversation and retrieved a mop to clean up the water.

"Well, we better keep you out of trouble," Gaius said as Merlin began to work the mop across the floor. "You can help me until I find some paid work for you. Here." Merlin turned to see Gaius holding out a small satchel and a bottle with yellow liquid in it.

"Holly-Hokkin Fever phew for Lady Percival," Gaius said laying the small satchel on the table. Then he put down the bottle and pointed at it. "And this is for Sir Olwin. He's as blind as a weevil, so warn him not to take it all at once."

"Okay," Merlin said as he left his task to pick up the objects from the table.

"And here," Gaius said handing Merlin a plate with a sandwich. Merlin smiled as he took the bread and meat. Gaius smiled too and jerked his head in the direction of the door. "Off you go."

Merlin handed him the mop to finish cleaning up the water. He just barely reached the door before Gaius called out to him.

"And Merlin!" Merlin turned to look at the physician. "I need hardly tell you that the practice of any form of enchantment will get you killed." Gaius wagged a finger. Merlin nodded as he opened the door, the scene of the day before in the courtyard brought back to mind.

He ate the sandwich upon leaving the room and set out to locate the people Gaius had sent him to find. After imploring with a few of the castle servants Merlin was pointed in the right direction of Sir Olwin's room. Merlin finished his sandwich just as he came to the door. He knocked and the door was soon answered by a man with little hair on his head and wrinkled skin around the eyes that suggested his blindness.

"Hi, I've brought you your medicine," Merlin said as he held out the bottle with the yellow liquid. The man's hand roamed the air for a few moments, but was unable to locate the bottle. Merlin grabbed his hand and guided it to the bottle. Merlin turned away to leave, but turned back remembering Gaius's warning.

"Oh, and Gaius said don't drink it all—" Unfortunately, he was too late as Sir Olwin was already downing every last drop of the solution.

"I'm sure it's fine," Merlin muttered. He left the old Sir Olwin to find the Lady Percival. As before he had a few servants point him in the direction. He didn't have to worry as much with Lady Percival, who just took the satchel said "Thank you" and closed the door. Merlin sighed with relief; it went alright for his first day. However, it began to plummet as he decided to explore the city a bit. He didn't get so much a foot out of the castle and into the streets when he witnessed something that brought back memories of his childhood.

There were a few men, bout his own age, talking to boy holding a shield. The men were obviously higher born as they adorned a few pieces of armor, primarily on their shoulders, and were talking the boy down. The boy was obviously a servant.

"Where's the target?" a one of the higher born asked. He was tall and sturdily built. He had blonde hair and a broad face. By the way the others were laughing, he was their ring leader.

The servant mumbled something; though, the high born obviously heard it. He spoke, but it was drowned out by the rattling of a passing cart. Merlin did catch something about the sun, but that was it. However, he did manage to catch what was said next.

"It's not that bright, sir," the servant told the high born.

"A bit like you than," the blonde haired man said. His followers laughed. The servant's head sort of bobbed of to the side sheepishly.

"I'll put the target on the other side, shall I sir?" the servant asked

The servant bent down to pick up a heavy looking wooden target and started to move a few meters farther back from the higher born. As he did this Merlin watched the blonde, he saw a mischief glint in his eyes as he pulled out a dagger. He leaned back a muttered to the others: "This will teach him." He then proceeded to throw the dagger at the target still being moved by the servant.

"Hey, hang on," the servant exclaimed as the thrower of the dagger and his followers laughed.

"Don't stop," the blonde called.

The servant moved a few more feet back. "Here?" he asked.

"I told you to keep moving," the blonde told him. Then he wrenched his arm back in preparation to throw another dagger. The servant's face became horrified and held the target in front of his face and began moving as instructed. Another dagger was realized and it drove into the target.

Merlin watched this all from the side line. This is exactly what he had witnessed when Blaise was being attacked. Merlin felt his blood boiling. Every thrown dagger flashed through Merlin's mind, reminding him of each stone that had been thrown at his friend those many years ago. Before he allowed his magic to take control however, he let his mouth explode.

"Stop!" he called, then realized how loud he sounded. The high born slowly turned to look at him with a skeptical expression plastered to his face. His followers had gone quiet and a few people who were passing by at the time stopped to watch.

"What?" the blonde high born sounded offended.

"You've had your fun my friend," Merlin told him, putting on a fake grin in an attempt to ease the tension. The high born stepped closer with a frown.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

"Uh, I'm Merlin," he told the high born who was now standing about two feet away. Merlin held out his hand, but it was ignored.

"So I don't know you?" the high born said.

"No," Merlin answered simply.

"Yet, you called me friend?"

Merlin paused for a moment, "That was my mistake."

"Yes, I think so."

"Yeah, I've never had a friend who could be such an ass," Merlin said, this time a genuine grin lit up his face. He turned to walk away, but the high born began to speak.

"Or I who could be so stupid," Merlin heard. He turned to look at the high born. "Tell me Merlin, do you know how to walk on your knees?"

"No," Merlin said simply.

"Would you like me to help you?"

"I wouldn't if I were you?" Merlin warned. The high born would pass it off as a challenge because of the grin he had on his face when he said it, but Merlin was genuinely worried that his magic instincts might kick in if it escalated.

"Why?" he asked a smile on his face as well. "What are you going to do to me?"

"You have no idea," Merlin breathed. The blonde looked amused.

"Be my guest," he said holding out his arms as an invitation. Merlin just looked at him warily. "Come on. Come on."

Merlin had the urge to accept the challenge, but he was a commoner. If he did something stupid, like actually hit the guy, he would find himself in trouble and Gaius had told him that's what they needed to keep him out of. So instead of acting on irrationality, Merlin turned away again.

"Uh, don't run away," the high born called mockingly. Merlin froze; the guy was pushing his luck.

"From you?" Merlin called back in mock questioning. "Who do you think you are, the king?"

"No, I'm his son," Blondy said. His followers were laughing in their mirth. Merlin realized he had just gotten himself in deep trouble. So this was Prince Arthur. Well, he couldn't say he was impressed.

"Look, I've told you you're an ass; I just didn't realize you were a royal one," Merlin couldn't help, but scoff as he turned back to the high born. The one the insult was directed at took it with a smirk. "Oh, what are you going to do? You've got your daddy's men to protect you?"

Arthur chortled with amusement, "I could take you apart with one blow."

"I could take you apart with less than that," Merlin told him against his better judgment.

The Prince looked at him with a smirk and a thoughtful look, "Are you sure?"

Merlin paused for a moment. It had clearly been a challenge, problem was; should he accept it? If he did, after all, hurt the Prince he could be in deeper trouble than with the insults he had already delivered. On the other hand, most of what he had said had only been a bluff, or, at least, they were if he kept a lid on his magic. After a quick thought over the situation, Merlin started pulling off his jack. Arthur and his men began to laugh.

"Here you go big man," Arthur said as he threw a chained mace at Merlin. He tried to catch it, but he had been a bit startled. He bent down and picked it up. As he straightened, Arthur began to twirl the one he had been given, he showed of his prowess with the weapon. Merlin instantly knew he was screwed. Arthur started to move towards him.

"I warn you, I've been trained to kill since birth."

"Wow," Merlin exclaimed dryly. "And how long have you've been training to be a prat?"

Arthur stopped his weapon twirling and his head drifted to the side with a smirk. He scoffed, "Look, you can't address me like that."

"Sorry," Merlin acted as if he meant it genuinely. He looked down at the ground. "How…how long have you've been training to be a prat, my lord?" Merlin finished it off with a mock bow.

Arthur's head drifted to the side again, a smirk once more on it. A few of his followers made "oh" sounds. Merlin allowed himself a satisfied smirk, which was wiped away a moment later as Arthur swung the chained mace at his head.

**Author's Note: Okay, so next chapter will consist of Arthur and Merlin's fight, meeting Morgana and Lady Helen, the dragon, and the obvious ending of the first episode. Blaise will appear again so I can create a filler scene so this isn't exactly like the ****_Dragon's Call_****. Oh, Arthur probably won't be as much as a prat in this story as he was in the show. And Merlin will become more competent with weapons later, I always hated it when the showed him to be completely useless with a sword, after all, the Merlin from legend was also called a warrior besides being an adviser and teacher.**


	3. Suspicions

**Author's Note: I need to quickly address a change I've made already to the story. Instead of Hunith's hometown being Ealdor, I changed it to Maridunum(Present day Carmarthen, UK), which is located in Dyffed (I already made that change to the letter written to her in the first chapter/Prologue)****_._**** There are a few reasons I did so. First one being is that it's more historically accurate ****of Merlin's birth and that is why I made the change (If you haven't already guessed that that's where I made my Merlin born in this story, then I reveal it to you now). The second one I can't really tell you without giving away to much of later chapters, it really pains me to have to wait so long to write ****_those _****chapters, but alas, it can't be helped. However, they still lived in Ealdor as Merlin grew up. Again, that will be explained much later.**

**Okay, so this is continuing Merlin and Arthur's fight. It will be pretty much the same as in the show except for the end (No, Merlin will still get his ass handed to him). Blaise makes another appearance as well. F.Y.I., Merlin meets Morgana a little differently in this one. **

**Have I forgotten to say that I'm a huge Merlin fan. Not just of the show, I actually mean the character on a whole. If your ever interested to read stuff on the advisor, warrior, and mentor from Arthurian legend, I suggest you read ****_Merlin _****by Norma Lorre Goodrich. And if you're ever just interested in reading a Merlin story, I suggest Mary Stewart's ****_Merlin Trilogy. _****She keeps it amazingly accurate to the legend, plus she keeps it realistic.**

Merlin ducked just before the spiked head of the chained mac could collide with his head. He straightened up just to duck another blow. Deciding his best chance of survival was to back away from his opponent, he did so well watching Arthur. Merlin had completely forgotten that they were in public, but was reminded of the fact as he nearly tripped over a box. He passed an empty cart, which Arthur jumped up onto.

"Come on Merlin, come on," he jeered well swing his weapon. Merlin pulled back his weapon to attack, but he got stuck in an empty birdcage hanging from a stall behind him. He quickly tried to free it, unfortunately Arthur takes this as an advantage and jumps from his perch, swinging the weapon at Merlin, barely missing a woman who was passing by.

Merlin jumped out of the way, leaving his weapon behind, and Arthur's weapon caught onto a basket, scattering its contents everywhere. Now he was defenseless and Merlin was approaching him with a self-satisfied smirk, which Merlin found irritating. Merlin jumped back again, barely being missed by the mace head. Merlin continued to back up, but he bumped into a stall. Having no other idea, he jumped over it and Arthur's weapon caught a head of cabbage instead. Merlin scrambled to his feet as Arthur followed him over the stall.

Arthur was slowly pushing him into a corner and Merlin knew it. If he didn't find some way to defend himself soon, he would be screwed. His hand bumped into something, a long rod that was about his height. Merlin grabbed it without hesitation and wielded it like a staff. Whatever Arthur thought about this new weapon he didn't show his thoughts as he swung the mace at him again. Merlin blocked it with the rod and swung one end at Arthur's head. He ducked and came at Merlin's side.

Merlin blocked the attack again bringing the rods end up in attempt to catch his opponents chin, but Arthur stumbled back to avoid it. Arthur, deciding it was time to end the fight, played dirt. He bent down and grasped dirt in his hand, throwing it into Merlin's eyes. Merlin blindly stumbled and tripped, landing on a large bag full of some soft hay. He was able to clear his eyes in time to see Arthur coming in for the kill. Merlin happened to spot a few scythes hanging in a stall right behind Arthur. He concentrated on them.

His magic made them turn so Arthur's chained mace got caught. Merlin took this chance to stand up and swing his rod at Arthur's head. Arthur ducked and abandoned the mace. Merlin advanced on him. Now the table was turned.

"Do you want to give up?" Merlin asked Arthur amongst the chattering crowd as he approached the Prince.

"Do you?" Arthur asked back. Merlin couldn't see whether the Prince was actually worried or not.

"Do you? Do you want to give up?" Merlin asked once more, ignoring the Prince's own question for him.

Arthur fell over a box and onto the ground. Merlin couldn't help but to smile. He was about to teach the Prince a lesson he soon wouldn't forget. However, Merlin felt a pair of eyes on him and looked up, he found himself staring at a rather disappointed looking Gaius.

This distraction gave Arthur enough time to grab a broom lying on the ground and to stand up, smacking Merlin over the head and then in the stomach. Merlin hit the ground like a bag of rocks. Arthur mockingly used the broom to brush some dirt onto him as the guards pulled him from the ground, no doubt to take him to the dungeons. Only Arthur did something Merlin hadn't expected him to do.

"Wait," Arthur said dismissively waving his hand. "Let him go. He may be and idiot, but his a brave one." Arthur came to stand beside the guards and looked at Merlin with wonder, or maybe it was suspicion.

"There something about you Merlin," Arthur shook his head. "I can't quite put my finger on it and started to walk away with guards in tow. However, he did make it far before a very regal and beautiful looking woman approached him with a death glare.

Her hair was long and was the color of raven feathers. Her eyes were a stormy grey and her mouth might have seemed delicate if it weren't pierced in anger. She wore a dark blue dress with a shawl of the similar color hanging from her arms. She looked to be Merlin's own age. There was a plan girl following close behind her. She had darker skin and with curly dark brown hair. Merlin guessed she was a servant.

"Arthur!" she addressed him angrily. Arthur paled considerably.

"Lady Morgana," Arthur's tone had become higher.

"What the hell do you think you were doing back there?" she demanded.

"I…I…don't know what…" Arthur stumbled over his words.

"I'm talking about when you nearly killed me with your idiotic fooling around," she said angrily. Arthur continued to stutter as he apologized. Merlin decided to make himself scarce before the lady turned on him. As he left the group of people assembled to watch Arthur be yelled at, Merlin glanced back to see Gaius following him. And he continued all the way back to his workroom.

"How could you be so foolish?" Gaius demanded as the entered Gaius's workroom.

"He needed to be taught a lesson," merlin said, not looking at the old physician.

"Magic must be studied vastly and then used for good, not for idiotic pranks." Merlin swung around to look at Gaius.

"What is there to master?" Merlin asked him angrily. "I could move objects since before I could talk."

"Then now you should know how to control yourself," Gaius stated.

"I don't want to control want to! If I can't use magic, what have I got?" The statement seemed to catch Gaius of guard as he didn't have anything to say. So Merlin continued. "I'm just a nobody and I'll always will be. If I can't use magic, I might as well die." Merlin became silent. Gaius didn't say anything as Merlin turned away and went to his room.

Merlin sat down on his bed allowing himself to feel self-pity. He had never felt so lost since being away from Ealdor. On the road he had been cautious to use magic, but he still used it. In Camelot's citadel he couldn't even try for fear of being caught. He was aware, though he didn't show it, when Gaius came into the room.

"Merlin, sit up, take your shirt off." Merlin wasn't quite sure why Gaius was asking this until he did start to sit up and pain shot through his shoulders. He hadn't realized he'd been injured during the duel. As Gaius began to work on Merlin's shoulder, merlin had this urge to ask a question.

"You don't know why I was born like this, do you?" Gaius hesitated a moment before answering.

"No," he stated.

"I'm not a monster am I?" Merlin asked, only half-jokingly. Though, many of the people back in Ealdor had called him the Fatherless Child, the bastard son of the Devil. That was why he had asked the question. He turned to Gaius to see the physician watching him. He looked like he had seen a ghost, but snapped out of his stupor and glared at Merlin.

"Don't ever think that," he told Merlin gently.

"Then why am I like this? Please, I need to know why," Merlin demanded desperately. Gaius sighed and put the cloth he had been using to wipe Merlin's shoulder on the bedside table.

"Maybe there's someone with more knowledge then me," Gaius said with a sigh. "Perhaps if you're father…"

Merlin became alert, "What about my father?" Gaius only shook his head as if to tell Merlin not to ask. But the young warlock wanted to know. No one, not even his mother had ever told him much about his father. All he knew is that they shared a name. However, it had been years, since before he was six, since his mother had used that name and Merlin had forgotten what it was. However, it looked as if Gaius would not say anymore.

"If you can't tell me no one can," Merlin said resigned. He had said it to sound like he meant the explanation of his powers, but he also meant his father as well. Gaius didn't say anything, instead he reached for a bottle he had brought with him and handed it to Merlin.

"Here, drink this," he said. "It will help with the pain."

Merlin took the bottle and drank the liquid that was inside it. He then handed the bottle back to Gaius, who took it, gathered his things and left. Merlin lay back down and began to think how much he was kept in the dark. He knew nothing of his powers or of his father; it was like no one wanted him to see the bigger picture. He fell asleep still thinking this; however, he didn't know that within a day his life would change drastically.

_Merlin_

_Merlin_

_Merlin!_

The distant bodiless voice woke Merlin once more. He wasn't sure that was a good thing, but it didn't bother him as much as other things. This made him ware of his aching back, but he knew better than to complain. He had, after all, fought with the Prince of Camelot. He could have been in a far worst position, like with his head on the chopping block in the castle courtyard just below his window. Getting up, Merlin got dressed and left the room, this time, without the backward glance.

Gaius, as the day before, was up already making breakfast when Merlin came into the room. Without saying a word to him, Merlin sat down at the table and started eating the contents of the bowl already sitting on the table. Gaius quietly walked over and sat down with his own bowl.

"Merlin, what did your mother say about your gift?" Gaius sounded almost cautious as he asked. Merlin shrugged.

"That I was… special," he answered. Gaius nodded slowly.

"Well, you are special," he said quietly. "The likes that I've never seen before."

"That's why I want to know the point of me having these powers if they can't be used," Merlin mumbled into his food. The conversation brought up a sudden question in his head.

"Gaius, did you ever study magic?" Merlin asked, looking up from his food. It was a fair question and he did seem to know an awful lot about the subject for a physician. Gaius looked at him for a moment.

"Uther banned all such work twenty years ago," he said. Merlin's head lifted, it hadn't been a direct answer, but he didn't say know either.

"Why?"

"People used magic for the wrong end at that time. It threw the natural order into chaos. Uther made it his mission to destroy everything from back then, even the dragons."

"What? All of them?" Merlin asked, astonished.

"Well, there was one dragon he chose not to kill," Gaius paused; he looked as if he was remembering something. "Kept it as an example. He imprisoned it in a cave deep beneath the castle. Where no one can free it. Now! Eat up, when you finish, I need you to take a preparation to Lady Helen, she needs it for her voice."

"Wait, who?" merlin asked, surprised at the sudden change in subject.

"Lady Helen, she's a singer from the Isle of Mora," Gaius explained. "She arrived late last night."

When they finished eating Gaius retrieved a jar with some sort of mustard colored solution. He also came back holding a bottle wrapped in a satchel. He didn't remember being asked to run a second errand.

"What's this one for?" Merlin asked Gaius as he was handed bot items.

"That one's for the Lady Morgana. Poor girl's suffering from nightmares," Gaius told him as he turned to the table covered in herbs and glass jars. "You might as well deliver Morgana's first, her room is closer than the guest rooms are."

Gaius didn't see that look of horror flash across Merlin's face. A moment from the day before came rushing back into his mind. He saw the fancily dressed woman yelling at the Prince because he had nearly crushed her with his weapon. He doubted she forgot the day before so easily, she would probably recognize him on the spot.

"Well, hurry up Merlin!" Gaius exclaimed, making Merlin jump. Lady Helen will not be pleased if she has to sing with un-soothed vocal chords tonight."

"Yeah, sorry Gaius," Merlin said quickly and left.

After asking for the location for the Lady Morgana's room, Merlin found himself walking in thought. What could he say to her? Hey, sorry I didn't stick around to be glared down by you? He doubt that would go well. Then again, maybe she hadn't noticed him; after all, if she had she would have located him already to yell at him. Since he wasn't really watching where he was walking, he nearly ran into a servant carrying a stack of clean sheets.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Merlin exclaimed and bent down to help her pick the sheets she had dropped.

"That's all right," the servant answered, already on her hands and knees to pick the sheets up. She stood up and nearly dropped the sheets at the sight of him and he nearly dropped the items he was carrying at the sight of her, she was the servant who had been following Lady Morgana the day before.

"You're that man who was fighting with Arthur yesterday," the servant said, almost accusingly. But instead of being rude, Merlin answered.

"Yes, that was me," he told her. "My name's Merlin."

"Mine's Guinevere, but most people call me Gwen," she said watching him."

"You're the maid of Morgana, right?" Merlin asked, trying to get past the obvious awkwardness.

"Yes, why?"

"Can you give this to her?" Merlin asked, holding up the little satchel with the bottled medicine in it. "Gaius said something about nightmares."

"That'll be a sleeping draft," Gwen said, nodding her head at the satchel he held. "Normally I would, but I sort of have my hands full here."

Merlin looked at the stack of now slightly rumpled sheets. There weren't that many of them and he was sure she could still take the medicine to its receiver. However, he didn't what to be rude and point that out so he just answered: "Okay, you can show me to her room."

"You know, you were really brave to stand up to Arthur like that," Gwen told him as they climbed a flight of stairs.

"Really?" Merlin asked. He hadn't been doing it to look brave. In fact, if anything, he made himself look stupid by taking on someone of royal standings and training with weapons.

"Yes, Arthur can be a bully and it was time that somebody stood up to him," Gwen said. Merlin frowned.

"But I lost."

"You showed him that not everyone is so ready to jump to their knees for him. Plus, Morgana took a good deal out of his pride in front of the public," Gwen giggled. Merlin smiled at the memory of Arthur's face when Morgana had appeared.

"Yes, well, I think I'm about to get a good deal of my pride taken care of," Merlin smirked, though not really amused. Gwen smiled at him.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad." However, that was all she could manage as they came to a door, merlin presumed Morgana's, and followed Gwen inside.

Merlin's eyes were not immediately presented with the sight of Lady Morgana. Instead, it was just of her room. He had suspected a lavishly decorated room and all sorts of things a Lady would use. However, the room was not like this. The furniture consisted of a bed, a table and chairs, large drapes, a wardrobe and a dressing table. The colors were all pastel, and the furniture was elegant. He had suspected so much more, but his reasons being there were hardly to admire the room.

"Well, I suppose I can just leave this—"Merlin started, but was interrupted when Lady Morgana finally made her appearance.

Morgana had very dark brown wavy hair, dark grey eyes and pale skin. Her angular face made him think that maybe she wasn't fully human and that was only backed up by her supernatural beauty. She wore a dress of light green that made her form apparent. Merlin's mother always told him he had a way of playing ignorant and keeping a straight face, he hoped that was true.

"M'lady," Merlin said with a bow.

"Hello? My I ask why you are here." Morgana asked. Merlin could tell she was putting on the lady-like act and that she much rather just come out with blunter questions. "Uther hasn't sent you to inform me that I must attend to the feast tonight, has he?"

"Er, no," Merlin said, he was caught off guard by the fact that she thought he worked as a servant there. Of course, if she knew his secret, she wouldn't have made that assumption.

"Oh, good," Morgana breathed, dropping her lady-like act. "He's been constantly reminding me to arrive tonight, though I'd much rather not. So, why are you here?"

Merlin was still a little confused by the sudden change in her character that he took a moment to collect his thoughts.

"Oh, uh, Gaius told me to give you this," he said, handing over the medicine. "It's your sleeping draft."

"Thank you," Morgana responded politely. Merlin turned to leave and had his right foot out the door before Morgana called back. "Wait, you seem familiar to me. Have we met before?"

Merlin turned to see her staring at him. He wasn't really sure how to answer, after all they had never really met before now.

"I just arrived in Camelot two days ago M'Lady, I think it'd be a bit difficult for us to have met before," Merlin answered her, again hoping that his emotions weren't playing across his face.

"No, I'm pretty sure I've seen you before," she stated coming closer. She got near enough for him to smell the perfume on her, which was unnerving him slightly. He had never been good around woman before, besides his mother and the other older woman of Ealdor. His mother worried that he would live and die alone, which he thought might be an okay fate.

Merlin watched as her face lit up in remembrance. "Now, I remember you're that man who decided to duel with Prince Arthur yesterday."

"I have no idea what you're talking about M'Lady," merlin answered, still trying to feint innocence.

"Stop playing coy," Morgana said amusedly. "Merlin was it, that's what Arthur said your name was."

"He talked about me?" Merlin asked dryly. On the inside, Merlin was slightly curious of what the Prince had said.

"So you are him," Morgana smiled. "Well, he said something about teaching you how to walk on your knees and then called you some choice words that would seem un-lady like for me to repeat."

Merlin knew that seeming lady like was not her worry, she was just being nice. However, Merlin wanted to know truth about what she thought.

"Uh, and what do you think about me? About what I did, I mean," Merlin added the last part quickly.

"I think you were foolish." He had been expecting a lot worse, but Morgana surprised him next by saying: "But brave to. Not many people stand up to those who would think themselves higher."

Now Merlin could tell she was not fully in the present. She seemed to be watching some distant, or not to distant, memory. Merlin thought it was best not to ask and leave her to her thoughts. Morgana didn't snap back to the present until after he had left, at which point she began talking about dresses for the feast with her maid. Merlin had already made it half-way to the guest's rooms by this point.

He needn't ask which room the Lady Helen was staying in, nearly everyone was talking about her and her performance that would happen that night at the celebrations. Not only did they talk about her signing, they also talked about the farthest guest room from great hall in which she had been situated in. It didn't take him long to find it and entered it as soon as he saw the door slightly ajar.

No one seemed to be present in the room, which h struck Merlin as odd, though he wouldn't know about such things having lived in a small town all his life. Merlin strode to the desk and set the bottle meant for Lady Helen there, and then he turned to leave. Except that something caught his eye as he began to turn. It seemed to be a doll created entirely from hay. Not only did it seem out of place, but Merlin sensed something about it, something not right.

His eyes swept the desk critically, searching further more for things that seemed out of place. He found one. Lying underneath a folded sheet was a book. Merlin picked it up and examined it. The books cover was made out of wood and was intricately decorated. There were pages sticking out and worn, as if the book itself had seen many hard years. Around it, a piece of string tied it shut, keeping the pages in and any prying eyes from peeking. Merlin itched to see what the book contained, but a loud slam from a nearby door warned him of someone's approach. Quickly, Merlin placed the book back where he found it and covered it up once more. He also glanced to see if the doll lay where it had been. It was. He swirled around just as a woman with dark hair entered. She wore a bright orange dress. He assumed it to be the Lady Helen. Merlin could see the suspicion in hers eyes as they swept the room, the desk, and Merlin himself.

"What are you doing here?" she asked her voice toneless. Merlin, who found it a little unnerving, quickly grabbed the bottle of solution and handed it to her without saying a word and left. As merlin walked away, he couldn't help, but feel that there was something off about here. He decided the best place to turn to was the place that more often than not, held the answers. He needed to make a trip to the library.

Passing through the corridors, he allowed himself to become absorbed in his thoughts. However, once more his mind was tugged on and he soon found himself staring at a gloomy corridor entrance. The place looked as if the only visitors it had had in years were the soldiers that patrolled the palace. As a uncanny gust of wind blew into his face, he thought he heard the faint whisper of his name. Shaking his head, he told himself he had imagined it and turned away. However, he glanced back once more before leaving it behind.

"Finally you come and see me," Blaise exclaimed as Merlin approached him among the ancient and dusty books. Despite his outburst, Blaise looked content with where he was, no doubt excited for fresh information and stories.

"Sorry," Merlin earnestly apologized. "I've had an interesting first two days here."

"Yeah," Blaise said, an amused smile spread across his face as if he knew what Merlin was talking about. "I heard about your showdown with the Future King. It's a pity you lost."

"Yes, anyway, I'm not here to talk about that. I—" Merlin was interrupted by Blaise.

"I'm hurt Merlin. I haven't seen you for a few days and when I do, you just want to ask questions," Blaise said with mock hurt. Merlin rolled his eyes at his friend's dramatics.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you the full story at some point, but there are few things I want to ask."

"And what might that be?"

Merlin was going to ask about the doll first, but the gust of wind from the dark corridor and his whispered name nagged at his mind as well.

"Do you know what is down that dark corridor? The one in the far east corner of the courtyard?" Merlin asked. Blaise blew dust off the book he was inspecting.

"It leads to a cave or something like that. I read it in some book talking about the "Great Purge." No doubt Uther had it written to cast him in a better light," Blaise said, though he wasn't really paying attention. Merlin's mind was shocked to hear the answer. Gaius had mentioned something about a cave under Camelot...he also mentioned something about a dragon…

"What else did you want to ask me?" Blaise's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh, uh, is there anything in here," Merlin gestured to the surrounding bookcases, "that takes about magical items?"

"From what Geoffrey said, no," Blaise answered flatly. "The King was very thorough when destroying everything dealing with magic."

This had been what Merlin had expected, though, he had been hoping for more. More for his own sack than the ordeal with the hay doll, but that was another factor for him to ask. Merlin told Blaise that he would try to meet up with him more often and left, he hoped that Lady Helen was just who everyone claimed her to be.

**Author's Note: Originally I had it planned that this chapter would end like ****_Dragon's Call. _****Unfortunately, I started to get real descriptive at the end. Which is funny because, like I've stated before, I usually aim for 5,000 words. Anyway, Merlin will meet the dragon in the next chapter, he'll save Arthur and though that may not seem to be a lot it'll probably get really descriptive again, maybe. Plus there are a few other things I want to add as well. So whether or not the next chapter is long or not will depend on how much I put in.**

**I'd also like to add that Merlin is better with hiding his emotions from people, such as Gaius. He is, after all, the legendary Merlin, the one to advise King Arthur. I thought he needed some more control over revealing his thoughts, whether threw words or expressions, to seem more mysterious.**


	4. Dragon, Witch, and Manservant

**Author's Note: ****So, this next chapter will finish off the ****_Dragon's Call_**** episode and then I can actually start to write this story without the help of episodes, except I may refer or use elements from them. Warning: Characters, not necessarily any in this chapter, may change personality wise. Mostly because it happens when i write, though, I will try with my deepest assurance to keep the whole jokes that Arthur and Merlin abuse each other with. Plus, some of Merlin's "clumsiness," as Arthur would put it. They also change because of their role in original legend, as I try to incorporate it as much as I can into the story, so my view of their personality will be different.**

Gaius caught Merlin by surprise when he asked him to change in his best clothes. When Merlin asked why Gaius told him that he had gotten him a job that required him to be present at the celebrations. As Merlin implored further he learned that he would be helping serve food and such stuff like that to the nobles. _Well_, he thought to himself, _at least he'd get some enjoyment from it._

The attire he chose for the celebrations was, amazingly, a red cotton shirt and a blue handkerchief for his neck. On top of that he wore, surprise, surprise, his tan coat. When he returned from his room to the main apartment where Gaius was waiting. He had changed from his brown robe to a navy blue robe.

"Well, come on, we must be there before the main part of the feast begins," Gaius told him as he headed for the door. Merlin followed him out, but his mind would not rest. It kept jumping back to the book and doll in Lady Helen's room, not to mention the cave that Blaise had confirmed. They were passing by the library when Merlin decided to check up on Blaise, more or less for his own reasons rather than actually visiting his friend. Of course, he would never admit that to Blaise. He really did care for him, but his mind was too wrapped up in things at that moment.

"Gaius," Merlin called. The old man, already twenty meters in head of Merlin's current position, turned his head to look at the young man. "I'll catch up, there's something I have to do first." He didn't give Gaius enough time to say anything before he dashed off to look for Blaise.

Being the fact that it was late in the evening, the library was dark except in the spots where candles were perched. It illuminated the place enough for Merlin to make a path through it without tripping over a corner of a bookshelf or a misplaced book. Though, if Blaise was working for Geoffrey, he would have swept the place for any books out of their correct spots and replaced them into the correct spots. It was a habit of his or, at least, he imagined it to be, Ealdor didn't have a library, so there hadn't been a place for Blaise to develop such habits.

It took him longer than he had expected to track Blaise down. His unfamiliarity with the maze of bookshelves left him puzzled several times and had to back track to remember where he as. Eventually, Merlin found Blaise sitting on the cold stone floor leafing through what looked to be a very ancient tomb. The black haired young man was so engrossed in the book that he didn't hear Merlin approach. Merlin crouched down and waved his hand in an attempt to get Blaise's attention. Merlin cleared his throat, causing the young man in front of him to jump and look up from the page he was reading.

"God Merlin, scare somebody, would you?" Blaise told him, laying the sarcasm on heavy. It had been rhetorical, but Merlin found himself answering.

"I thought I just did," he said with an acquitted smirk.

"Yes, very amusing." More sarcasm. "Oh, by the way, what you had asked me before had gotten me thinking….hold that thought and follow me."

Blaise quickly stood up, replacing the book to its spot on the shelf, and pushed past Merlin, who followed. Merlin was surprised; he'd been on the urge of asking Blaise to quickly look for anything that might mention magic artifacts when Blaise had brought it up. He either had good timing or good luck, either way, it had served him well. Blaise brought him to what seemed like a section here more recently written books were placed. He bent down and retrieved a relatively small book.

"I was mildly interested about what you asked on magical items, so I went and looked around," Blaise explained and helped up the book. "I found this."

"And what is that?" merlin asked, gesturing to the book. He knew Blaise had found something and was itching for him just to spit it out, but it seemed that Blaise found entertainment in explaining his findings.

"This book is relatively new, another book Uther had written in order to cast a shadow on magic," Blaise said as he started flipping through the pages. "Anyway, I found this book and it mentions a few of the items that were used back then in the fighting against Uther."

"And?" Merlin asked, hoping he didn't sound anxious.

"You'd asked about a doll," Blaise held out the book, turned to a page somewhere in its middle. "Read that page."

_A poppet is a doll created as a representation of a person with the intention of casting dark spells upon that person by way of inflicting those spells upon the doll. Poppets have been used by magic practicers on many different occasions. They can be made from nearly anything: wood, clay, and, more often than not, straw._

Merlin read it several times to be sure he read it correctly the first time. When he did finally decide that he understood what it said, an immediate red flag, like those that flew on top of Camelot's towers, went up in his head. That doll he had picked up in Lady's Helen room was no doubt a poppet. That meant that there was someone in the castle that had magic, somebody besides him, and their nobles were un-doubtingly less honorable than how he would use his. Some type of forbidding expression must have leaked across his face because Blaise interrupted his thoughts.

"Merlin? Is there something you're not telling me?" Merlin weighed in his mind whether he should tell Blaise or not. It wasn't that he didn't trust him with keeping things secret, but he was facing things much darker than he had ever in the past. Which, he couldn't say he had witnessed anything darker than what he had seen the day he saved Blaise from the other children. However, he couldn't really tell anyone else. Sure, he could probably confide things with Gaius, but it wasn't nearly as nice as having someone your own age to talk to.

"Okay. Earlier when I was delivering a potion made by Gaius for the Lady Helen," Merlin started explaining in a low voice, he spoke quickly. "I spotted this doll made out of straw. Normally something like this wouldn't bother me, but I felt…magic radiating from it."

Blaise's eyes grew wide. "What!?" His voice had grown louder and Merlin hushed him.

"I could be over reacting," Merlin told Blaise. "After all, the only magic I've ever known is my own. I could be wrong; Lady Helen could be who she really says she is."

"And what if she isn't? Then the person pretending to be her is walking around, planning who knows what!" Blaise cautioned his friend.

Merlin felt torn. There was a high probability that what Blaise said was true, not that he hadn't thought of it before. However, it was equally true that he could just be overreacting, looking for something that wasn't there. But it wasn't the fact that he worried about these things that hooked his mind, it was that he was carrying about it.

What did he care if someone in the castle used magic? It didn't concern him, none in the least. He could just allow them to go on and do their business well he sat idly by. On the other hand, he had come to Camelot to start a life and if he let something happen well he could stop something from happening that life would crumble even before it began. But what could he do, he was just helping the court's physician. Would anyone believe him if he warned them of coming danger? And if they didn't, could he stop the danger from happening? His head began to spin.

"Listen I don't know enough yet. Until I can get some efficient evidence I can't do anything," merlin whispered taking a quick glance around to make sure no one had approached during their whispered discussion.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Blaise asked indigently. Merlin straightened and spoke out loud.

"I've got some work to do with the celebrations and I need to get to the dining hall. I didn't know whether or not you were going to be there?"

"Er, Geoffrey went up there, but he never asked me to come," Blaise looked confused at the change of Merlin's low tones and posture.

"Come with me than, we can talk well you help me out," Merlin told him. Merlin turned away and Blaise, still confused, followed close behind him. They quickly navigated their way through the castle corridors and found themselves standing outside the large oak door of the great hall. Merlin entered without hesitation; though, Blaise did for a moment before following him. Merlin quickly made out the white, shoulder-length hair of the physician of the court.

"Did I miss anything?" Merlin asked, startling Gaius. The old man looked at the young man with irritation and bemusement.

"Nothing of any importance," Gaius told him after a moment of him inspecting Merlin, but he seemed not to notice anything out of the ordinary. Merlin hoped it was his amazing skills with keeping a straight face.

"Where did you go?" he asked, as though it was something important.

"I just thought that Blaise might find it more interesting up here than in the dark library," merlin commented as he watching the crowd. Both he and Gaius bowed their heads in respect at passing nobles.

Blaise had to make his own comment. "Actually, I think I liked it better when I was there instead of here."

Merlin didn't reply to the statement because he was busy wondering exactly when Lady Helen would sing. He knew, out of sack for his consciousness, he had to be present when she did. He wanted to be able to warn someone of her intentions, though he had no clues to what they were, but it wasn't going to be for the better. He was so caught up with being tactful of the situation that he didn't notice people, mostly men, were staring at something, or someone, out of his line of vision until Blaise mumbled: "God have mercy…"

Merlin turned his attention to whatever was capturing everyone else's. The thing, actually, person, was Morgana. If he could have used any word that came to mind it would probably have been "goddess." However, he wasn't thinking because of being dumbstruck by Morgana's beauty. She wore a maroon dress that lacked sleeves; though, it did have a gold chain connected to the front of it, which ran around her neck. It was completed with a gold belt, which imitated a garland of leaves. She passed by and headed straight for Arthur.

Something must have slipped past his emotionless, or perhaps not so emotionless, expression because Gaius said his name with a hint of a scolding tone. "Remember you're here to work."

_Right_, Merlin thought sarcastically to himself, but his mind wasn't into the work. It was back on the possible magic user in the castle and what their, her really, intentions were. However, it was quite literally impossible to guess when he wasn't looking right at the suspect. Instead of letting his mind to dwell too much on it, he turned to Gwen, who had entered with Morgana.

"She looks great doesn't she?" the maid asked as she held onto a pitcher.

"Yeah," Merlin said only have mindedly.

Gwen sighed as she set down the pitcher. "Some people were just born to be queen."

"No!" Merlin exclaimed as his mind was pulled into the present. He didn't know why he had reacted so strongly, but he was saved from answering that question because his statement came out more like a exclamation of skepticism. He looked at Morgana who was talking with the Prince.

"I hope so," Gwen said with a smile. "One day. Not that I'd want to be her. Who would want to marry Arthur?"

Merlin found himself sniggering. "Gwen, I thought you liked those rough, tough, save the world kind of men."

"No," Gwen said flatly. "I like much more ordinary men like you."

"Gwen believe me, I'm not—" But that was when the bodiless voice decided to interrupt his thoughts.

_Merlin_

"No, I didn't mean you. Obviously, not you, but just…You know, I like much more ordinary men _like_ you," Gwen said quickly, thinking that he had thought she meant she liked him, but it was a waste of breath. Merlin's mind focused on the voice that pushed itself into his mind.

_Merlin_

"Would you excuse me Gwen, there' something I forgot to do," Merlin said only half paying attention to the present time and place. He disappeared before she got a chance to question him. He left the dining hall, hopefully unseen, and followed the corridors out to the courtyard.

_Merlin_

The voice continued to call. It was different from the first two times. Then, they had sounded simply like it was acknowledging his presence, now it sounded as if it wanted him to be in its presence. If it wasn't for the great pull that he knew was some sort of magic, he would probably have feared it. However, the voice didn't seem to hold any malicious intent in it, in fact, it seemed eager to meet him.

Merlin crossed the courtyard well he looked around for any patrolling guards. None could be seen and he hoped for all the sake of his life that none would appear and question him. He reached the entrance of the dark corridor, which he bet lead deep into the earth. He hesitated, not sure if this was the smartest idea.

_Merlin_

It felt like a taunt to him, a deliberate push on his back in order for him to continue his journey. It worked. He stepped into the shadows in case that a guard did appear, but he knew quite a few were at the celebrations. He quickly followed it until he reached stairs, at which point, he descended them. There was another corridor at the end of this with another staircase leading down. At the end of it he found an sort of open room with a torch blazing from a corner of the room that was no visible to him.

He knew that there were guards stationed there. He heard them chatting, accompanied by the role of dice as the played a game to relieve their boredom. Merlin knew that they wouldn't allow him to pass; they would likely arrest him for acting extremely suspicious. So the only way past them was to cause a distraction. Merlin peeked around the railing of the stairwell leading down to the floor where the guards had their table positioned.

They were both very large and muscular; Merlin would stand no chance against them if it came to physical strength. He looked at their surroundings for anything that he could use to distract them. Then it clicked in his head, why not use something that was their only distraction form the boredom that was guarding. Merlin glared at the small cubes the men were throwing about.

The dice jumped from the table, seemingly all on their own accord. The guards didn't seem to be alarmed, they appeared t be confused. One of them got up and made a move to grab the small, wooden cubes again only to find them darting father away. The same guard tried to grab them again, but again, the dice jumped farther away. The other guard joined the one chasing the dice. Merlin made them chase the small cubes all the way across the room and into a door, down a flight of stairs Merlin could hear them drop. The guards quickly followed, leaving Merlin to spy the entrance to a cave.

As soon as the disappeared, Merlin sprang from his hiding spot and clambered down the smooth stone stairs. He approached the cave and looked down it, to see if he could spot anything in the pitch blackness. However, he could not and he decided one use of magic was enough for that day. Instead, he grabbed an unlit torch leaning against the wall next to the cave entrance. He took it and lit it with the torch that hung on the wall. Then he approached the cave opening once more.

_Merlin_

He took a step forward and entered.

It would have been extremely dark if he hadn't thought to bring along the torch. He could hardly see anything six feet in front of him as it was. But he didn't voice his complaint as there was no one there to listen. Except for the voice, but that wouldn't answer back with anything useful, just his name. The journey through the cavern also seemed to drag on. He wondered if he would ever reach some sort of ending. He eventually did, of course.

He found himself standing on a small ledge overhanging a vast cavern; Camelot and more could fit within the length of the chamber. Merlin chanced a look down; his eyes were not greeted by the bottom of the cavern floor. But where was the mysterious voice coming from? And what did it want with him? Those answers were the reasons he had decided to venture there.

"Where are you?" Merlin called out instinctively. A rush of air hit his face and a large shape fell from the unseen stone rafters from above. Merlin jolted back as he looked upon a large, golden dragon. His mind found it difficult to register what he was looking at. True, Gaius had said that the King had captured a dragon, but he had thought that the dragon might have died long before now or that it had been a fake tale; though, it appeared not to be.

The dragon's size brought no image to mind that he could compare. His size would have downsized a house, but a castle would appear a giant to it. It had glimmering, golden scales that appeared so real to Merlin that he could imagine them being real. The dragon's wings spread out to the side of it with, again, incomparable size. Claws sank into stone as it landed to take perch on a boulder protruding from the darkness below. It opened its mouth, showing of teeth the length of long swords and sharper yet, to speak.

"I am here," the dragon told him. The dragon's voice, which already rivaled the volume of anyone Merlin had ever met, reverberated off the cavern walls. Merlin, still stunned, did not know if he should answer back. It appeared that the dragon was taking in his own details of the young man standing before him as the young man had been doing to it. "So small, for such a great destiny."

Merlin found his voice; though it seemed small and shaky compared to the dragon's loud and firm one. "Why? What do you mean? What destiny?"

"Your gift, Merlin, was given to you for a reason" the dragon answered him well making himself comfortable on his stony perch. Merlin heart beats quickened upon hearing this.

"So there is a reason," Merlin said trying not to sound anxious. The dragon seemed to think about something, but began to speak again.

"Arthur is the once and future king ho will unite the land of Albion."

"Right," Merlin said, now he wasn't exactly sure where this conversation was going.

"But he faces many threats," the dragon rumbled. "From friend and foe alike."

"I don't see what this has to do with me," Merlin said irritated. He had been hoping to learn more about himself, not about the prat of a prince that everyone called Arthur.

"Everything," the dragon forcefully interjected. "Without you, Arthur will never succeed. Without you, there will be no Albion."

Merlin didn't really know what he was hearing. The dragon was implying the land that he lived in rested on his shoulders alone. "No, no, you've got this wrong."

"There is no right or wrong! Only what is and what isn't!"

"I'm serious!" Merlin exclaimed. "If anyone wants to kill him they can go ahead. In fact, I'd give them a hand."

The dragon chuckled. "None of us can choose our destiny Merlin, and none of us can stop it. Your own father knew that truth twenty years ago."

"My father?" Merlin asked surprised by the sudden statement.

"Yes," the dragon nodded his large, golden head. "He was a wise man and my friend. I'm just sorry his destiny was to die."

"Please, tell me about my father."

"I'm sorry Merlin, but it is something you must find out in your own time. Your father knew how to hide his secrets, just like your mother has hidden her own," the dragon stated.

"What does my mother have to hide?"

"Another thing that is not for me to tell. If I did, it would give you a chance to choose another life and Arthur would fail."

"I thought you said that we cannot escape destiny," Merlin said angrily. He was, yet again, being denied information that he wanted to learn.

"Destiny allows finds a way to work it's course. If you chose the other life over the one you have, sooner or later it would find you, but it would change the outcome of history," the dragon told him, stooping his head to look at merlin closer. "Your father knew that and that is why he forbid me to tell you anything. He saw that you would help Arthur, which is where your destiny lays, here and now."

"No, no way. No, there must be another Arthur because this one's an idiot."

"Perhaps it's your destiny to change that," the dragon spoke softly. It reared its head suddenly a breathed a column of flames. Merlin stepped back in fear, but watched it all the same. As he did so, it became dark for a moment. Then he found himself in the dining hall once more.

Had it all been a dream? But he found that he couldn't move or look away from the scene before him. So instead of making a big fuss out of it, Merlin sat and watched the event unfold. Uther was speaking, seemingly presenting someone as he couldn't hear a word being spoken. Merlin's vision turned on its own to see Lady Helen, who appeared to have begun to sing. Merlin watched as everyone began to become drowsy. Cobwebs fell onto the group and the singer stepped forward, walking closer to the table. She stepped in front of the table and looked down on the sleeping prince. She just looked at him, and then she drew a dagger from her sleeve and threw it, the silver blade sank into his chest up to the hilt.

Merlin's head suddenly exploded with pain and found that he lay on the floor of the little stone terrace before the Great Dragon. He knew that the pain in his head wasn't from hitting it, but he didn't know where it had come from. He reached for his aching head and moaned. The dragon chuckled.

"Yes, the headaches you will get used to."

"There'll be more?" Merlin asked, hoping the answer was a "no."

"Your father got used to the pains caused by the vision of future events."

"You mean I saw the future?" Merlin didn't quite know whether to be afraid or interested.

"Yes," the dragon said, his tome becoming serious. "But don't see it as a perk. Seeing future events is often a curse rather than a blessing. Nor will the always come to you in the time of trouble."

"So, Arthur will die if I don't stop the witch?" Merlin asked. The dragon raised a scaly eyebrow.

"Is that what you saw?" it inquired. Though, the question was rhetorical because without another word, it stood on its feet and leapt into the air. This meant that Merlin was, once more, alone.

Merlin glance after it, thinking of all the things he had learned. Now he knew that his father had magic as well, at least. His mother had some sort of secret, he would be sure to ask about it the next time he saw her. And Arthur would be killed that very night if he didn't intervene. He thought about what he said before, about helping kill Arthur if someone wanted to. But his morals didn't lean in that direction.

"Damn," he muttered as he left the giant cavern, still holding his head, to stop a death of a royal. A royal pain in the ass if he may add.

* * *

"Arthur," Merlin whispered harshly from behind the drape of a large window he was hiding behind. He had found his way up to the dining hall rather quickly, glad that nothing had happened before he returned. Merlin searched the room for the blonde haired prince before saddling the hall's stone walls and sneaking behind the drape, not far from where the Prince talked to some of the knights of the court. He rubbed at his still aching temple. "Pst! Arthur!"

The Prince turned around, looking for the source that called his name. Merlin peeked out from behind the curtain to see the Prince spot him. The man in question rolled his eyes and approached him.

"What did I say about addressing me?" Arthur asked with an eyebrow raised in irritation.

"Now's not the time," Merlin whispered hurriedly. "Someone in the castle has magic and plan to use it to kill someone." Arthur's brow furrowed.

"Who?" Merlin became confused. Was he asking who the one with magic was, or the likely victim? He decided to answer in a way that would answer both questions at the same time.

"It's Lady Helen," Merlin spat out. "And she plans to kill you."

Arthur's reaction wasn't what he was hoping for. It lightened up and he relaxed, his one corner of his mouth lifting at the corners. "And why does the Lady Helen want to kill me?"

Uh oh, he had never thought of the reasons behind this attack.

"I don't know," he tried to make himself confident, but it sounded lame even to him.

"Right, someone's already been in the wine tonight," Arthur said turning away. A care free smile spread across his face. "I'm going to go back to what I was doing; well you go back to helping the other servants. That was why you are here, wasn't it?" But like the dragon, he didn't wait for Merlin to answer. Merlin cursed his luck. Then a trumpet blared sounding the start of the actual feast. Merlin cursed his luck again.

Everyone took their seats at the tables placed in the middle of the room, that was, everyone besides the royal family. Arthur and the Pendragon ward, Morgana, took their seats at the table set at the front of the hall. Merlin found his place, which was standing next to Morris, the servant he had stopped Arthur from bullying, just a few yards from the head table itself. Uther entered and walked down the center of the hall smiling at those that he walked by. He came to a stop in front of the head table. He turned to speak to the assembled.

"We have enjoyed twenty years of peace and prosperity. It has brought the kingdom and myself many pleasures, but few can compare with the honor of introducing…Lady Helen of Mora." Everyone started applauding and Uther took his seat behind the table as everyone's attention was turned to the woman who had entered the hall. She stood on a slightly raised square podium; Merlin wasn't quite sure what he would do when it came time to stop her. A tune started playing and she began to sing.

To anyone who did not have the gift that Merlin had, they wouldn't think it dangerous. In fact, it did sound quite peaceful when she began to sing. The words that emitted from her lips were not the common tongue; they were something foreign, that much Merlin knew. The strangest part was, he understood every single one.

"_Lovely night has come to us, lovely night, soft and dark; the lovely night that ends a long and hard, weary day; so rest..._" Merlin began to notice the dipping heads of the mass of people gathered in the room. Even the servants were being affected. He covered his ears quickly, he was not sure if the magic of her spell would affect him, but he was better safe than sorry.

"_Lay your body down, forget your life. Spiders of the night come, spin your silky webs. Spiders of the night come, bind them in their sleep. Now, spiders of the night, spin! Wrapped in your shroud, dead to the world..._"Lady Helen had left her station and approached the middle of the room. Merlin watched as spider webs suddenly appeared, as if flourishing into existent, and the lights faded. They covered everything in the room, even the bodies of the sleeping. Lady Helen began to approach the table slowly and she drew a dagger from her sleeve.

Merlin acted on the spur of the moment. He began to look for anything that might help him stop her. He had a slight advantage, Lady Helen, or what appeared to be Lady Helen, was absorbed on the moment that she had noticed she had failed to put one person to sleep. _"…just like my son: dead, dead, dead, DEAD!"_

Merlin spotted a chandelier just over the woman. Merlin glared at it, willing the chain on it to break, just as Lady Helen drew back her arm to throw the knife. The chain of the chandelier snapped before she could react and it fell on top of her, legs crushed underneath it. The spell that had been laid on the hall suddenly dispersed and people began to wake. Everyone was confused by their own state and the state of the hall, being covered in cobwebs. Uther stood to see the body of a woman lying on the ground, as did everyone else. She stirred and lifted her fake, exposing the truth of who she was. It was the woman from the day Merlin had arrived, the one who had threatened Uther. Before anyone could attack, she picked up the dagger lying beside her and threw it at her original target.

Merlin hadn't expected this and remained stationary for less than a millisecond, then his mind reacted instinctively and he glared at the dagger. Time slowed down, or at least to him, to everyone else it would appear to have been the suspension after the moment had passed. Merlin ran forward in order to pull Arthur out of the way before the dagger could make contact with Arthur's chest. However, Merlin knew that he wouldn't make it, he had hesitated a moment too long to react. But maybe it wasn't too late. Merlin threw his hand out wrap it around Arthur to pull him around, but…

The thud the dagger made as it speared through the back of Merlin's outstretched hand resounded through the hall. The woman who had thrown it fell dead mere seconds after seeing here failure. Everyone, still stunned from the moment of action, didn't make a move. Arthur just stood there looking at the dagger protruding from merlin's hand, still outstretched due to the fact that Merlin was stunned himself. Gaius reacted first; he quickly stood up and rushed to the front, he began to examine Merlin's hand.

Merlin couldn't say it hurt because it didn't due to his adrenaline running through his body. However, that didn't mean that he couldn't feel it, the cold metal chilled all the way through his hand. Gaius forced Merlin to turn his hand and he examined the hand further.

"You're lucky, slipped between your finger bones," Gaius said quietly to him. How on earth was he lucky, Merlin would never figure out. Uther stepped forward; both he and Arthur were now staring at him.

"You saved my boy's life, a debt must be repaid," Uther said his voice surprisingly calm for having almost witnessed his son's death. Gaius continued to examine his hand.

"Um,well…" Merlin shook his head, not really sure what to say.

"Don't be modest, you shall be rewarded," Uther prodded.

"Honestly, you don't have to your Highness," Merlin stated, worried more over his hand than payment for saving a life.

"No absolutely," Uther paused for a moment, searching for the right words to say. "This merits something quite special."

He didn't really care by this point; he would at least gain something from this. "Well…"

"You should be awarded a position of the royal household," Uther declared loudly for all to here. Merlin was quite shocked by this, that wasn't anything compared to what Uther stated next. "You shall be Prince Arthur's manservant."

Merlin mind stopped. _Arthur's…manservant? Why does God hate me?_

He wasn't the only one taken aback by the proclamation.

"Father," Arthur exclaimed louder, his tone of voice rather high for a man. People began to applaud to this and what was worse was that Gaius had joined in; his smile looked more fore amusement than it was for happiness. And if the night couldn't be any better, his hand tingled with the first sensation of pain.

* * *

Hours after the event of the feast, Blaise sat awake at the desk in the corner of the room Geoffrey had set up for him. He dipped the quill he held into an inkwell set next to a large book he was writing in. It had been a gift from his father, he had died many years and Blaise had very few memories of him, a long time ago. He had never found anything worthwhile to write in it, so it had sat blank for many years. However, he had finally found something to write about.

He drew the quill tip from the inkwell and started to finish the last sentence.

_…and using his divine power, the great sorcerer slowed time to save the Prince of Camelot. The knife resounded threw the castle's hall as the dagger plunged deep into the flesh of his hand. Honored by the servitude he need not have given, he was bestowed with thanks with a spot next to the Once and Future King' side. So ends the first tale of the Greatest Sorcerer to Ever Live's life._

Blaise drew back and groaned from the pain in his back or having bent so long over the book. He blew on the line until dry, the he turned to the first page just to stare at the title.

_Historia Merlinus_

Blaise closed the book and found refuge in his bed, waiting to record the next adventure of Merlin.

**Author's Note: How did you think of this chapter's ending? Sort of inserting Blaise's destiny into the story as well. You might have noticed how long this chapter was, but I didn't want to have to break it into another chapter. The main body of the texts came close to 6,000 words just so you know. Anyway, there are probably things that caught your interest.**

**First off, the Great Dragon mentioned a secret Hunith has, but doesn't tell Merlin. That will eventually be explained as that is one of the chapters I can't wait to write. I would leave hints as to what it is, but I think it would take the suspense out of it.**

**Second, Merlin will have visions in future chapters, though not in all of them. I came up with this idea because of Mary Stewart's _Merlin Trilogy _in which Merlin has visions by looking into fire, dew drops, or anything that could reflect light or cause light. **

**Third, Merlin's way of stopping the knife just _slightly_ different from the show. I needed to make Merlin realize, though I didn't make it clear in the chapter, that his destiny to help Arthur will be dangerous.**

**The lines for Lady Helen/Mary Collins songs I got from the Merlin wiki, as well as the info on the poppet. As you can see I don't have slightly as much to explain in this author's note as did in the last few, that's because I didn't imply as much from legend into it. This will probably happen for some chapters in the future. So Fav, Follow, and/or Comment. (Never really understood why people said Rate when you don't really rate it).**


	5. The Cave

**Author's Note: I'm back with another chapter. Sorry, it took so long, for so long I had a problem with creativity so a sort of let this hang around in my story folder. But now I have finished it so you all could enjoy it. It's not the best of written, but it isn't the worst either.**

A week had passed since the fateful night at the feast. Merlin lay awake, early in the morning; his hand throbbed from the wound he had received that night. It floated around in his head like a past memory, though he had only lived it a week before. It was hard to stop thinking of the changes in his life. Just thinking about it made him groan in frustration.

The largest change in his life he hated the most, being Arthur's manservant. He had tried his best to persuade Gaius to talk the King out of the arrangement. However, Gaius felt like it would be "good" for him, he had snorted sarcastically to that. He might have gone to ask the dragon for advice on this, but he knew how that conversation would turn out. His "destiny" was next to Arthur. Merlin sighed heavily as he sat up and rubbed his head, with his good hand.

He looked out the slightly ajar window. Glimpsing sunlight that of the rising sun on the side of the shutter, Merlin got to his feet. He hobbled to the window and threw it open all the way, allowing fresh air to stream into the room. He turned to grab some clothes, but his eyes fell on something else; a leather bound book. Gaius had given it to him after the feast. It was a book of magic.

**One Week Previously.**

Merlin sat alone in his room at the table in the corner. His good hand propped his chin up while the other, the dagger having been removed and bandages wrapped around it, lay useless on the table. At first his fingers had subconsciously started to pick at the grain of the wooden table, but this only inflicted pain, so Merlin stopped moving his hand.

His mind did not linger in the present time, instead he could only think about hours before. He had to admit, despite it being the only thing he could think of at the time; Merlin had been stupid to use magic in front of the whole court. Of course, people hadn't noticed time slowing down or that he was the one who had caused it, but if they had…

"How are you feeling?" Merlin had been so lost in thought that he had not realized Gaius had approached. The physician was looking down at him, something held between both of his hands.

"A bit better, but you can't expect someone to feel terribly grand after a knife spears their hand," Merlin said with a hint of sarcasm. He even allowed himself a half-smile.

"You're a hero at least," Gaius said with a small smile.

"Hard to believe isn't it."

"No, I knew it from the moment I met you," Gaius said as he moved closer to the table. "You saved my life, remember?"

"But that was magic," Merlin said, his curiosity perking.

Gaius nodded his head, "And now it seems we've finally found a use for it!"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw how you saved Arthur's life."

"Oh, no," Merlin said. Gaius didn't say it out right, but he insinuated the same thing the dragon had; only the dragon had been blunter about it.

"Perhaps that's its purpose," Gaius said slowly and clearly.

Merlin huffed, "My destiny."

"Indeed," Gaius agreed quietly. Merlin, caught up in his own thought didn't see the praising look Gaius gave him with a smile. What Merlin did notice was Gaius moving forward drawing out an object wrapped in a red cloth. "This was given to me when I was your age." Merlin stood up, careful with his hand, to take a closer look.

"But, I have a feeling it will be of more use to you then it was to me," Gaius added as he handed the object over to Merlin. Merlin looked at it hesitantly, not exactly sure what to do. However, curiosity got the better of him and he pulled back the cloth to find a leather bound book within.

It was old looking, with yellow pages and stains just noticeable on some of the edges of the pages. There was a small brass disc with an amber jewel in the middle of it fastened to the cover. There was a matching bronze clasp that held the book together, keeping its secrets inside. Merlin unclipped the bronze clasp that held the front cover shut and opened it. He shuffled there a few of the pages, he wasn't exactly sure what to think of it until he saw words that would never be seen in any of Camelot's books at present time.

"But this is a book of magic?" Merlin said with awe. He could help, but let a smile break upon his face as he shuffled through more of the book.

"That is why you must keep it hidden."

Merlin felt wonder and hopefulness rush through his veins. Not only had Gaius revealed that he once studied magic, he had also given Merlin the book he had once studied from. Merlin felt like he'd found new purpose to his life.

"I will study every word!" Merlin exclaimed loudly. Gaius smiled upon him once more before he left the young warlock to marvel at the gift given to him.

**Back to Present Time**

Merlin sighed. The week had passed rather quickly, but also rather slowly. When he worked, Arthur set him on something that took time and full of labor, making it seem like time was slowing down again. However, whenever he found time to sit down and study the book Gaius had given him, it felt like time passed far quicker than it should. Just thinking about it made Merlin sigh again.

However, as the circumstances stood, he had very little left to do but do as told. He resumed the action he had been doing before he had gotten distracted, which was retrieving some clothes. He hurried in his dressing, which was hampered slightly by his hand, and left his room to see if Gaius had started breakfast. Greeted by the smell of the daily porridge, Merlin managed a sullen smile. He sat down at the table without even looking up as Gaius put the bowl of a sloppy, white mass. This only made Merlin grimace, it would be awhile before he got used to the dull tasting food. At least they ate better during the day.

"So what does the Prince have planned today?" Gaius asked as he sat down with his own bowl of breakfast.

"You should see the list of my duties," Merlin said sullenly. "And Arthur made it quite clear that he wished to go hunting today. Personally, I don't see the enjoyment in killing defenseless animals, but to each, his own."

"I take it you first week as Arthur's manservant has allowed you to… build character?" Gaius smirked.

"Have I not mentioned the list of duties he's given me?" Merlin asked sarcastically. Gaius's grin turned into a face splitting smile.

"It can't be that bad?" Gaius commented.

"Oh really? Then I guess I'll be the court's physician for a week and you can play Arthur's manservant."

"Very well, Physician Merlin, how would you treat festering rash?

"Uh…"

"Or perhaps a few minor burns?" Gaius lifted an eyebrow in skepticism.

"Fine, so I guess I need to learn few things," Merlin mumbled, though his spirit had risen slightly. "At any rate, I suppose I should go and get Arthur's hunting equipment." At which point, Merlin stood up and moved to the door.

"Merlin!" Gaius called. The young man turned back to the physician, who had left the table to rummage through a cabinet.

"Yes, Gaius?"

"Can you please bring this to the Lady Morgana," the old man asked as he handed Merlin a small bottle of amber colored liquid.

"What is it?"

"Another sleeping draft. She told me that the last one I prepared for her wasn't working, so I tried something a little stronger." Gaius shook his head. "I must say, I've never had such problems with other sufferers of nightmare."

Merlin left the physician's chamber.

He absented himself from the wing of the castle in which Gaius's chamber was located. As he stepped into the sunlight, he breathed in deeply, enjoying the morning air. As he set out to deliver the cargo Gaius had entrusted him with, he walked by several servants, a few guards on patrol, and one or two of the knights (Merlin was not exactly sure of their names, though he had seen them before when they accompanied Arthur).

A few of them glanced at Merlin, more of the servants rather than the armored men, but Merlin knew they _all_ were wondering why he saved Arthur. If any were to ask, he could just simply say because it was the right thing to do, which, in all honesty, was the truth. However, what he couldn't tell them was the fact that he learned from a dragon, who had been imprisoned by Uther, that it was his destiny to help Arthur bind the land of Albion together. Just thinking of it made him nauseated.

The fact that he was part of Uther's court didn't help the nausea either. Though, to say he hated his new found position in the court would be a lie. So far he had found that it often sped up some process faster than it would have if he were a normal commoner. For instance, whenever Arthur needed his sword sharpened, which he already had Merlin do it near to half a dozen times in the last week, he just brought it to the local blacksmith, Tom, who would drop everything at the instance to do the job (Interestingly enough, he also happened to be Gwen's father).Though, Merlin wondered why, when the castle had its own personal blacksmith for the castle.

"Tom is the best," Arthur had simply answered when Merlin had asked him about it on the third time of running the errand.

And that wasn't the only thing that his position helped with. Merlin was also responsible for bring Arthur's breakfast. It didn't hurt a soul when Merlin snuck a few apples for Arthur's breakfast, or so he told the cook, just to hide them in some dark corner until he could scrupulously come back for them. To be honest, other than having to deal with Arthur directly, the job couldn't be better.

As Merlin pondered his somewhat higher stature in life, his feet, seemingly on their own accord, brought him before Morgana's chambers. Merlin felt the urge to leave the bottle at the foot of the door and leave. After all, no one would be none the wiser and Arthur _was _probably waiting for him. However, he mentally berated himself, why should he feel uneasy for just delivering a sleeping draught. Letting the worry slip from his mind, Merlin knocked on the door.

No answer came and Merlin's mind began to tell itself that no one was there, but he managed to convince himself that the knock had been light, probably inaudible to any of the room's occupants. Lifting his hand, he knocked again, this time putting a considerable amount of force into it. Some shuffling could be heard just beyond the door and Merlin, self-consciously (though he tried to tell himself otherwise), stood straighter seconds before the door opened.

It was Morgana herself who answered the door, something that had caught Merlin just a tad off guard. Though, before Morgana could register his surprise, Merlin managed to turn it into a calm demeanor and gave her a friendly smile.

"Merlin," Morgana said with her own dazzling smile. "Is there something you need?"

"I thought that was the question I'm supposed to ask?" Merlin jested, his instincts telling him to be friendly. The question only made Morgana's smile widen. He could see why everyone in Camelot loved the Lady Morgana. "But that is beside the point. I brought the sleeping draught you asked for." Merlin held up the small bottle full of amber liquid with his bandaged hand. Morgana took it from him.

"Thank you," she told him. "And your hand; how is it?"

"It is fine, Gaius said in another week or so it should be in tip-top shape." Merlin held up his hand and flexed it a few times, which caused him more pain then he let on.

"I hope Arthur doesn't give you too strenuous of work?"

"Arthur is… well, Arthur," Merlin answered with a shrug.

"I suppose your right," Morgana said with a knowing smirk.

"And since the topic of Arthur came up, I suppose I'd better go and tend to him." Merlin bowed. "M'lady."

"Good Day Merlin," Morgana replied as she began to shut the door. Merlin himself had already turned away. As he drifted back the way he came, one or two flights of stairs and several long corridors, Merlin found himself thinking about the encounter he had just had with Morgana. He had been there for just a week and only met her once, not including the times Arthur and her ran into each other when they were strolling through the castle, and yet they had a semi descent, but somewhat formal, conversation.

Merlin, in all honesty, found it strange. He had been told by his mother before that he had a sort of charm that made him a likeable person in character, so perhaps that was the reason for it. But that did not allow Merlin to forget the strange and wary feeling she let off. Of course, it could be something he was reading too much into. Though, that's what he had thought right before Mary Collins, disguised as Lady Helen, tried to murder Arthur before the whole court. Again, Merlin could do nothing more than set it on a figurative shelf in the back of his mind to ponder over later.

Merlin hastily found his way to the armory where he located Arthur's crossbow and a quiver of bolts. He quickly grabbed them, with some difficulty due to the bandages that hindered his right hand, and took off to find Arthur. He found the Prince leaning against the palace stables fidgeting with a pair of leather gloves in his boredom. He was dressed in rather plain clothing; a brown cotton shirt underneath a leather jacket that looked as if it had been used for several years and pants fit enough for a wealthy merchant, certainly not for a prince. His head lifted as Merlin drew closer, squinting through the rays of the sun rising steadily in the sky.

"Finally, _Merlin_, thought you'd fallen asleep in the tavern or something," Arthur said angrily. Obviously, he'd thought he'd been kept waiting too long. Merlin had no idea where he had gotten the tavern idea; he'd never been to the tavern in the city.

"Sorry, my lord. Gaius asked me to deliver a sleeping draught to Morgana," Merlin answered casually, as if he were addressing a stranger on the road. He learned that Arthur was less likely to smack him over the head for, and Merlin couldn't possibly deny it as the truth, his insolence.

"Very well, but keep in mind that my father placed you in this position. If I were to say something to him, my father would kick you out faster than he appointed you." Merlin held out the crossbow and quiver, which Arthur took none to gently.

"Yes sire," Merlin answered in the same tone of voice as before.

"Now, if you would retrieve my horse," Arthur said as he remained standing by the stable. Merlin went in and found Arthur's horse, which he had become familiar with during the last week of being Arthur's manservant. He retrieved Arthur's saddle and slipped it over the horses back. He spent some time buckling the straps due to his hand, but he soon managed the task and led the horse into the sun.

Arthur had slipped both the quiver and the crossbow onto his back and waited patiently, or so it looked from behind.

"Finally," Arthur exclaimed as Merlin pulled the steed up next to the Prince. "I was about ready to come looking for you."

"There wasn't any need for concern, sire," Merlin said. Arthur snorted in mock amusement. Then he stripped his back of the crossbow and bolts, tossing them to his servant. Merlin happened to catch them, though pain shot through his hand. "Mind carrying these for me Merlin?" Arthur reared his horse forward, leaving Merlin in the dust.

"No, of course not, _sire_," Merlin said to himself with contempt. He slung both of the objects that Arthur had thrown at him and ran after the retreating horse.

Several hours later, Merlin trailed behind Arthur slowly. So far the day had rewarded them, or rather Arthur, with two conies and at that very moment, Arthur couldn't be surer with himself that they were on the tail of reasonable sized deer. Merlin wasn't paying much attention to it himself as he was only there to hold the game Arthur caught and on occasion, his crossbow. They had left the horse tied to a tree near to the forest, in which the resided, border.

Arthur, who crouched low, stepped through a bush. Merlin followed, but made a bit more noise than brought Arthur comfort.

"_Merlin,_" Arthur hissed lowly.

"Sorry," Merlin whispered back. Arthur turned his eyes back to the trees in front of them. Arthur's eyes scanned, the terrain, looking for any sign of the deer. Using his hand, Arthur signaled for Merlin to follow closely. He would have obliged, but as soon as Arthur started moving, merlin found himself caught in the branches of the bush. Merlin reached back and tried to dismantle the branch from its hold on his jacket, but it was hooked in quite well. Merlin glanced at Arthur, who shrunk rapidly from sight.

"Arthur?" Merlin called quietly, no reply came. Merlin tried again, louder than before. "Arthur?"

Again no sound came to his ears besides the chirping of birds and leafs brushing against leaves as he tried to escape from the bushes hold. Throwing a nervous glance around, Merlin twisted his head far enough to see part of the branch that held him captive. He spoke softly.

"Forbearnan firgenholt!" Merlin's eyes flamed gold and the branch broke in half. Stumbling away from the bush, Merlin reached behind him and worked the stick out of his jacket and tossed it to the side. Looking around, Merlin cursed. Arthur had traveled out of his sight.

"Arthur," Merlin yelled. As before, no answer came to him. He sighed and started out to find the prince.

After a time, it became apparent to Merlin that it was useless to stumble around the forest calling out for Arthur. Instead Merlin started to look for a hill. He figured if he could get an elevated view of the forest, he could decide which way the border of the forest was. Hopefully, Arthur would wait for Merlin to reappear, though he wasn't counting on that. In fact, Arthur would likely be overjoyed that his new manservant had suddenly disappeared. Eventually, he managed to find a hill, luckily enough; it also had a path to the top.

Merlin followed the hillside path for some time, hoping it would lead him to higher ground.

He reached the top to see that the sun was at the highest arch in the sky. Glancing to the open air, the young warlock could see nothing, but trees. How far had they gone? Merlin scanned his memory; they couldn't have gone for more than a couple miles, yet, as Merlin looked, the surroundings were unfamiliar. The trees, the trees were too old to be near Camelot; they would have been cut down years ago. So where could he be?

A sound brought Merlin out from his mind's recesses. He could hear running water off to his right and when he turned there was a stream, only a few meters wide. The strangest part about the stream is that it seemed to just run off the hill, only Merlin hadn't seen it when walking up. His eyes followed the streams path until it disappeared into a gapping cave mouth.

It was at that moment that Merlin felt something pull on his conscience, something vaguely familiar to the moment when the dragon did. A pull connected through magic. Merlin shook his head and looked around. It seemed that the hillside itself was used minimally, though the path was worn enough to show that farmers used it frequently. Merlin glanced at the cave again. What could it hurt to have a look around?

He waded towards the cave entrance through the ankle deep stream. Looking inside, he couldn't see anything except for a few meters into it. Merlin bent down and picked up a stone from the bottom of the stream and then straightened up to toss it. He couldn't tell how far it went, but he heard it bounce off a stone wall. Just as the echo began to die, Merlin heard the stone hit something quite different from rock. It hit some sort of wooden object. Curiosity getting the better of him, Merlin stepped into the dark cavern.

He became blind within seconds, the dark cloaking everything from his sight. Merlin felt for the side of the cave entrance to use as a guide. He couldn't say he liked the feeling of being unable to see his way forward. Just as he began to tell himself that it would be better for him to find Arthur instead, his foot struck something. Retracting his hands from the cave wall, Merlin reached out in front of himself. His hand brushed against bark. Merlin suspected it to be a tree; but to be sure, Merlin stepped around it to get a better feel. That was when a fire sparked and the cave became illuminated.

What merlin had suspected to be a tree was truly a tree. However, it wasn't the object that held Merlin's attention. The whole chamber seemed to be filled with objects.

The immediate objects that caught his attention were the stacks of books piled in one corner of the room. _Blaise would love this place_, Merlin thought. His eyes moved from the countless number of tomes to a small table nearer to the center. Upon sat a golden chess board with silver and obsidian, Merlin guessed, playing pieces. On a chair near the roaring fire sat a harp, which Merlin saw playing itself. And against the wall in across from the cave entrance there was a table which was covered by numerous plants and jars counting more plants as well as liquids. Thunderstruck, Merlin slowly turned around as his eyes roamed the rest of it.

"Marvelous isn't it."

Merlin jumped and spun around, his eyes burned gold as he instinctively cast magic. However, his attack was cast away with a simple wave of a hand by a frail and old looking man.

He had white bushy hair that lay lank over his ears, and a straight growth of white beard, which was roughly trimmed. His hands were calloused with long fingers. His veins crawled and knotted on them, distended like worms. His face was the most holding bit; it was thin, cavernous almost as a skull, with a high domed forehead and bushy white eyebrows that covered his grey stormy eyes. His nose was a thin beak, much like that of a falcon. He wore simple brown robes, much like the ones Gaius normally wore, with a golden sash tied around his waist.

Merlin stood up straighter, having crouched to provide less of a target in case of an attack. The old man met his blue eyes, both held the gaze. Merlin searched is eyes for an indication of his intentions, but the man was impossible to read. The man, on the other hand just, stood there, watching Merlin as if he already knew everything Merlin would do, and with a smile on his face to.

"Who are you?" Merlin asked. He squinted his eyes in suspicion at the old man.

"Just an old man, enjoying a peaceful time at home," he answered casually. Merlin looked around at the cave.

"This is your home?" Merlin couldn't help, but ask. Sure, it looked as if someone lived there, but this old man? All by himself?

"Of course," the man said casually again, too casually in Merlin's opinion. "And at that, who are you?"

Merlin hesitated. Should he answer him? He had just waltzed into a cave without thinking. Of course, who in the right mind would live in a cave in the middle of nowhere?

"I am Merlin, servant to Prince Arthur of Camelot."

"Prince Arthur… Camelot… hmm." The old man ran his fingers through his white beard, staring at Merlin intently. "Yes, of course, I know that. After all, I know of your destiny."

A red flag immediately went up in Merlin's mind. The only other one who actually _knew _of his name was the dragon, and he had proven to be helpful… to a point. But as the old man was not a dragon, that could only mean he was a warlock, just like Merlin…

"What is your name?" Merlin asked. This time, no tone of suspicion crept into his voice.

"Yes… my name… what is my name?" The old man was still gazing at Merlin as if he were something that was hard to take in all at once. "It's been so long since I've needed to use my name."

As Merlin watched him, he could see in the man's stormy grey eyes, for the first time since their initial meeting, something other than indifference. He seemed to be having a mental battle, trying to decide whether to tell Merlin something or not. Whatever it was, it was causing turmoil within him, which could be seen by the grimace that had replaced his smile. Or, perhaps, he had truly forgotten his name.

"My name is… Dubricius," he finally managed.

"And what do you do out here? In fact, where is here?"

"Here? Oh, we are in the lands of Cornwall," Dubricius said with an almost cheerful tone. "And what I do here is study nature and magic. See over here, an ordinary chess set, except you don't even need to touch the pieces, just tell them where to go and they move on their own! I've been thinking about calling it Warlock's chess or Sorcerer's chess, but neither have nearly a nice ring to it… perhaps Wizard's chess…"

Merlin had barely heard a word he said. Cornwall? How the hell did he end up all the way in Cornwall? They had been leagues from border of Cornwall.

"… and my harp here is one of a kind. I received it from—"

"How am I in Cornwall?" Merlin interrupted the old man's babbling

"What?" Dubricius said, looking at Merlin with a slightly confused expression.

"How did I get in Cornwall?"

"I brought you here," was the reply as though it were obvious.

"How? And… why?"

"By magic that's how," Dubricius said; his demeanor completely different from before. He now stood stalk still, staring at Merlin with unwavering eyes. Merlin could only look at him in wonder. He had magic strong enough to transport Merlin from Camelot to Cornwall without him even realizing it. What were the limits of his power? "But my magic is incomparable to yours, or what yours will be after a few years of practice. That is also why I brought you here."

"My magic?" Merlin asked, slightly dazed at what he had been told.

"Your magic, but more importantly, your—"

"Destiny," Merlin finished, pulling himself together.

"Yes," Dubricius answered quietly.

"But what are you in it for?" Merlin asked. Dubricius looked at him strangely.

"What do you mean?"

"You must want me to help Arthur for your own reasons. I can understand why the dragon—"

"Kilgharrah," Dubricius piped.

"What?"

"The dragon's name is Kilgharrah."

"How do you now that?"

"It doesn't matter how I know, but it's more respectful to use someone's name. Please continue."

"Anyway, Kilgharrah," Merlin stumbled over the name slightly, "has a reason to why he wants me to help Arthur. If I help Arthur unite Albion as one, he can right Uther's wrongs. Magic would be accepted in the land once more. However, I don't see you're motive."

"Well, as I am a warlock myself, I would like magic to be free over the land as well. However, that is not the sole reason." Dubricius seemed to be in some faraway place. He licked his lips to moisten them. "I might've suggested someone to a friend of the king, which caused Uther's rampage." He paused for a moment.

"But that was nearly twenty years ago. The past is the past and unchangeable," he told Merlin. "You are the chance to undue the crimes of King Uther, by helping his son. The reason I have brought you here is so I may lend you a few things that may come in handy." Without another word, he left Merlin standing alone to rummage through a clutter of objects.

This allowed Merlin some time to think, which proved to be difficult with all that had happened so far that day. The old man, Dubricius seemed like a fair fellow, but so did Uther when he wasn't about to order someone's head off, which Merlin could admit having seen him already chop off one man's head. And his destiny had found its way to the surface of Merlin's mind again; just when he'd thought he had buried it for a time.

His destiny. How important was it really? Two people, or rather, one persona and a dragon, had already told him that he would stand next to Arthur and create a better land, but to be honest, he couldn't see it. He had lived in poverty up until he became Arthur's manservant. He was expected to use his magic to help Arthur despite the fact that he lived in a land where magic was punishable by death. And to top it off, the Prince hated his guts. What a wonderful destiny it was turning out to be.

Then again, Merlin could not deny that he wanted to prove himself useful in the world. Especially to those who had called him the "son of a demon". He wanted to use his magic for good, and his destiny could prove to be that which he wanted.

"Here," Merlin jumped in surprise. So lost in thought he had been that he hadn't noticed Dubricius return. The old man held out something small, which Merlin took as he had been offered it.

It was a plain, golden ring. There seemed to be nothing special about it. Merlin raised an eyebrow at Dubricius in question.

The old man understood. "Whenever you want to find something that is lost, hidden, or otherwise untraceable, the ring shall guide your way. I retrieved it well helping an unfortunate maiden that happened to get herself into a bind. And this… "

He handed Merlin a small dagger. The handle and casing were gold, very well designed, and was encrusted with red jewels.

"I happened to be given this by a dear friend and I hate to part with it, but you would find it a great deal more useful than I. It has magic as well, but I think I'll let you discover what it does on your own. And the last thing…"

Dubricius offered him a long branch, which seemed to be from the very tree at that Merlin had nearly run into when he had entered the cave. Merlin took it. It was slightly taller than him and his hand wrapped around just enough so the tips of his fingers and his thumb overlapped. The strangest part was the blue jewel that seemed to have been embedded at the head of it, just discernible from the wood. Dubricius seemed to have noticed him looking at it.

"Yes, it does seem rather small doesn't it?" Without waiting for Merlin's answer, Dubricius waved his hand and muttered something incoherent under his breath. Suddenly, the head of the staff began to grow as well as the jewel. Little chips of wood fell away well the layer of wood surrounding the jewel reformed around it. When it stopped, the jewel was nearly the size of Merlin's fist and the wood layer surrounding it encased it with a web like design. Merlin stared wide eyed at it and then to Dubricius.

"There that's better," Dubricius commented. "Now with this I will be able to contact you, but it also serves the purpose of channeling your magic easier and using more complex spells. However, I dare say it will be a while before you will be able to use it. Now, your time here has come to a close." The old man grasped Merlin's shoulders and steered him to the exit.

"But—"

"This gives you a good chance of using that ring to find your way back."

"But—" Merlin tried again, but Dubricius wasn't paying him any mind.

"This is not the last time we'll meet."

"But how am I supposed to get back to Camelot in one night."

"Don't worry; I will take care of that. Just lift your feet and keep walking, you'll finally find your way."

Merlin now stood next to the tree again. His back turned to the old man.

"Dubricius, what—"

"Oh, and Merlin?"

The young warlock turned to look at the old man.

"Yes?"

"Be careful of someone called Nimueh."

"Why?"

"Because, she is not your friend… or your foe."

"Then why should I be careful of her?"

"She only seeks to gain for herself."

Merlin just stared at the old man. He acted as if he had known Merlin his whole life, yet, they had only met. He couldn't decide whether or not to trust him. But, how many people did he actually have to trust? Gaius and the dragon, at least, he thought the dragon, definitely Blaise, but other than that he didn't have anyone to trust.

"I'll… keep that in mind," Merlin told him. He turned away and left the chamber, leaving Dubricius to stare after him. As the fire began to die, Dubricius shape started to twist and shimmer.

"We shall meet again… son." His shape evaporated, but, before he disappeared entirely, his eyes changed from grey to blue. With that, the old man had disappeared.

A drop of water rolled down the stalactite, making its way through the maze of cracks on the stony surface. The small orb collected more moisture in its descent, causing it to grow. As it reached the pointy end of the rocky icicle, it slowed and gravity pulled yet farther down. At the point, it hung for mere seconds before it broke contact and dropped into the open air. The water droplet fell and plummeted into a small basin set in a marble column.

The surface of the water in the basin rippled. And, almost as if the movement of the water called forth some power, an image appeared. Whatever gave the water its power, it wasn't strong enough to clearly display the image. Not much could be made of what was seen. The image soon began to fade.

Nothing stirred in the cave. Nothing moved or breathed; thought or spoke. Completely silent.

_Clatter!_

The movement echoed through the cave, and the extending tunnels and caverns connecting to it. Another clatter rang out, echoing loud than the last. A shuffle came from a dark entrance way at the far corner of the small cave. Someone stepped into the hollow; taking slow elegant steps. The woman, for it was a woman, drew nearer to the small basin.

Thick, brown locks of hair fell across her face; she idly pushed them out of her face. This exposed piercing, bluish-grey eyes. She wore a blood red dress and an aura of power surrounded her. Something powerful had made itself known and she wanted to know what it was. She leaned forward, over the basin. Her hand stretched out and a thin, delicate finger tapped the water. The image that had faded from the water's surface appeared once more, clearer this time.

Trunks were easily seen, automatically labeling the surrounding area as a forest. Light escaped through spaces in the overlapped leaves, the lighting was enough to show a figure swerving through the trees.

His brown hair was short and disheveled and his cheek bones were obvious. He held a staff adorned with a large jewel. He seemed, at present, to be examining something in his bandaged covered hand. It was a small, bejeweled dagger, nothing special. However, it was something interesting to the woman. It looked awfully like the dagger once given to a warlock who had befriended a king. Could the boy be…?

Nimueh smiled and whispered the boy's name.

"_Myrddin Emrys._"

**Author's Note: There's the chapter and as usual, I have a few things to explain.**

**The first thing: Dubricius. If you didn't get it from the context of the story, he is actually Balinor. I decided to use an alias for him for two reasons, one: I wanted to bring Balinor, well I did ever since the beginning of the story. I just wanted you all to believe he was dead for a time being, two: in Norma Lorre Goodrich's book ****_Merlin_**** she spends most of the time trying to pinpoint a possible base figure for Merlin. That base figure, as she concluded, was St. Dubricius.**

**Second: the staff, the ring, and the knife. I brought in the staff for basically two reasons. One, I thought Merlin should be more wizard like, and the classical seemed the right way to go. And two, I wanted Dubricius/Balinor to talk with Merlin more frequently and you'll see how that works later. Both the ring and the knife I based of of two of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain. The ring came form the story of Owain, who was given the ring by the maiden Eluned (the basis of Lunette from the Arthurian legend). The ring originally, turned the wearer invisible, but as several of the treasures do that I decided to change its powers. The Knife was based off of a knife by a horseman named Llawfrodedd. The knife was said to serve a table of 24 men, however, I saw this as a useless power for this story and will ( as I haven't decided yet) change its powers (More, and possibly all, of the Treasures will make their appearance at some point in the story. For example, the chessboard that Merlin saw was based off of the Chessboard of Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio, which the pieces were supposedly supposed to play on their own. However, I did more of a J.K. Rowling thing, though I beat that she based her Wizard's Chess after this chessboard, and made it so the pieces could be commanded.)**

**Anything that I missed and you wish to know can be asked by PMing me.**

**As a final note, I had an idea of a Modern Merlin fanfic after reading a couple that are out and about. However, i want to tie it in with this one because I felt like it would work, so you won't see anything like that for awhile. But I do want to post a one-shot so you readers can get a feel of my idea. As of now, I plan to call it D.R.U.I.D., but that will likely change when I actually turn it into a story. So if your are slightly interest, keep a watch out for it over the next few days.**

**Anyways, hoped you liked, I appreciate feedback, and hopefully you won't have to wait to long for another chapter.**


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